Countdown to Judgment Day
by SFBKludge
Summary: Judgment Day has come for the scoobies. Will they survive the coming of Sky Net. Warning Dark Story major character death will occur. Rating for subject matter.
1. Chapter 1

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: Buffy Season 6+. Terminator 1,2.

(T3 was an abomination that proved to me that Arnold was planning to run for office and he had to get a contractual obligation out of the way first. So he did something that took no real creative effort on his part,. I may lift a few things. But otherwise it doesn't exist.)

Slightly AU: Joyce lived .The aneurysm didn't happen the doctor fixed it during surgery. Vampires when they dust leave their clothes and possessions behind. (IMO Joss wanted to avoid the expense of having to drop clothes all the time.)

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

**Warning there will be major character deaths occuring.**

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Prologue

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Seven (pt1):

Begin Dream Sequence

The Scooby gang was fighting a whole nest of Vamps. They practically had vampires coming out of their ears. But they were more than holding their own.

A brightness came from behind Buffy. Those facing the light lifted their arms trying to shield their eye's from a terrible brightness. As if it came directly from the sun. The vampires started to burn and turned to dust.

Seconds later everyone's clothes stated burning and an irrespirable wave of destruction swept them along unto oblivion.

Then it was as if she was in space. She saw the sight of numerous flashes occurring all across the face of the globe. At each flash she knew a city had died.

The world faded to black.

Then Buffy could see what looked to be the same place the scoobies had been fighting the vampires. But it had changed. All was in ruin. All that was left were some scattered bones and skulls. One of the skulls had what was left of a familiar pair of glasses. Suddenly a gleaming metallic foot came down and crushed the skull."

Buff

"A metallic skeleton stood upon what was left of her friends remains. It turned to face her and the glowing red eyes of death itself locked upon her. The metallic skeleton raised it's weapon toward her. Firing some sort of laser rifle at her.

End Dream Sequence

'Remember'

Buffy woke up clammy with he heart beating so rapidly that if she wasn't the slayer she might have faced a heart attack. Shouting

**__**

"Noooo!"

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Authors Note: I'll be updating this one only every two to three weeks, until I get the Scooby Doo meets the Scoobies story done.

This is the story I've been hinting about. I think the subject matter alone will qualify it as a "Dark" story.

I deliberately left almost all of them in cliffhangers. Most of them will be much longer.

PLEASE R&R. If I get a good number of them I may update faster than I planned to.

I would like it if someone volunteered to do a Beta. For the Scooby story I'm not worried about it. For this story I intend to pull out all the stops.

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	2. Day Seven pt1 Awakenings

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: Buffy Season 6+. Terminator 1,2.

(T3 was an abomination that proved to me that Arnold was planning to run for office and he had to get a contractual obligation out of the way first. So he did something that took no real creative effort on his part,. I may lift a few things. But otherwise it doesn't exist.)

Slightly AU: Joyce lived the aneurysm didn't happen. Vampires when they dust leave their clothes and possessions behind. (IMO Joss wanted to avoid the expense of having to drop clothes all the time.)

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens; Buffy's bedroom

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Chapter One

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Seven (pt1):

Awakening

__

(Somehow I loaded the old version of this chapter. I saved the edited chapter in a different file when I thought I had over written the original. This is the revised text. There's not a lot of changes but they do make a difference.)

Buffy woke up clammy with he heart beating so rapidly that if she wasn't the slayer she might have faced a heart attack. Shouting

**__**

Noooo!

Joyce was startled out of sleep. She heard Buffy crying out in the way only a soul that had lost all hope could. She grabbed a stake from the nightstand and went running to Buffy's room not even fully awake yet. Just knowing that her daughter needed her. (AN:1)

Joyce burst into Buffy's room ready to do battle with anything that frightened her daughter. She lowered the stake when she saw Buffy crying in misery. She heard Dawn stirring as well. Yelling over her shoulder.

"Dawn go back to bed!" Joyce then went over and sat on the bed to hug Buffy.

"Buffy what's wrong?"

'There was this light. Everyone's dead." The misery in Buffy's voice was beyond any that Joyce had ever heard before. Even from when she was called back from heaven. Joyce held her in her arms, like she was once again her little girl, instead of the Slayer.

"Shhh Buffy it was just a dream. Nothings happened. Everybody is alright. It was just a bad nightmare" Joyce had never liked the demands that Buffy's calling put on her or her friends, which she thought of as her own children.

"No mom it won't be alright. The dream was a Slayer dream. I really wish it was a end of the world nightmare. Something that would keep me from sleeping for a week. But I'm convinced it felt like a Slayer Dream. But the powers that be give me something to go on to stop whatever I've seen. But not this time. Not only did I see us die. I was above and watched the whole planet destroyed."

To Joyce Buffy sounded like she was on the verge of breakdown. Like this last dream and pushed her back into the virtual death wish she'd had when Willow raised her from the dead.

"Your right toot's." A strange little man that dressed in a very bad suit suddenly seemed to step into Buffy's room out of nowhere.

"Whistler"

Joyce heard the hatred in Buffy's voice. As Buffy grabbed the stake she had brought into the room and rolled from the bed. Spanning the distance between her and this Whistler in less time than she could blink.

Buffy grabbed his shirt and jabbed the stake up to his throat.

"What do you want Whistler?"

Joyce and Whistler both heard the menace in her voice.

"Well I…"

"Forget it! Last time you showed up I had to kill Angel. What sort of hell am I supposed to go through for the powers now? Which of my friends am I supposed to kill? Buffy's voice escalated through the entire tirade.

"Slayer it's not like that. The dream was a warning of what will happen if you went on with business as usual. Please listen to me. The powers are bending the rules to the breaking point as is. This was a warning for you and your friends. The powers owe you to much to leave you unwarned. I'll explain as much as I can. So get all your friends and family together as soon as possible. And call my name."

He was smiling fondly. "And my name isn't proceeded by damn bastard or other similar additions." And he faded away as he said the last word.

"Buffy who was that horribly dressed little man who disturbingly reminded me of principle Snyder?"

"Mom if he was telling the truth. I think we'll need to get ready. If he was serious about…" Buffy visibly switched mental tracks and seemed to come to an acceptance of what she had heard. She looked over at her alarm clock. "Oh God it's that early. Couldn't the Damn powers have let me sleep longer and gotten me up closer to when I had to get up anyway? Don't they know that a sleepy Buffy is a cranky Buffy and that's never a good thing." She rolled her eye's dramatically.

"Come on, lets see what sort of non perishable food's we have in the house. As soon as it gets light out I'll call everyone local and tell them to meet us at the magic box. But I better give Giles a call in Tweed land right now."

Joyce was reeling from what she'd heard. "Buffy this can't be.."

"Mom snap out of it. I don't want to believe it either. But we better start getting prepared just in case. I really need to talk to Giles now."

"Ok dear go ahead call Giles. I just need some time to think."

Brinnng!

"Giles residence."

"Giles we have a problem."

"Buffy isn't it awfully early for you to be calling me?"

"I was just given a Slayer Dream and Whistler showed up. He was giving me an apocalyptic warning. He said we need to get all of our friends and family together as soon as possible. It seems like our time is short"

"Oh dear Lord." Buffy was sure he was cleaning his glasses again.

"I really need you to get Willow and come here as soon as possible. We need to be ready to bring out our biggest guns. We're going to meet as soon as we can at the shop"

"Buffy you needn't ask. Willow and I will be there as soon as we can. But you can't meet at the shop. It hasn't finished being repaired from what happened…"

"Oh boy, I can't believe I didn't remember that, Anya's still on the warpath with the contractors. Ok we'll meet at my house."

"Are you sure you need Willow to come? She's been making a great deal of progress. Can you tell me what is going to happen?"

"Giles I need the both of you. Make sure Will's knows that we love her and miss her. I can't go through this more than once, so everyone will need to be here."

-Scene Break-

A couple of hours later.

Buffy and Joyce are having coffee in the kitchen.

"Ok mom I've called everyone that I can reach for now, to an emergency meeting here. They'll all be here in a couple of hours. You me and Dawn better run to the store and buy some supplies. Thank God she's such and sound sleeper and hasn't gotten up yet."

Joyce knew that Dawn had probably laid awake in her bed since Buffy's shout. But let her go on thinking what she wanted. Right now she was more concerned with the almost maniacal energy Buffy was putting into her effort to avoid thinking about her dream. "What kind of supplies are you talking about?"

"We're fairly well fixed on canned goods for a change. But we could easily add more to the stockpile we have. It wouldn't even be wasted money since we could always eat them later. But I was thinking about vitamins and supplements, none of which would actually go to waste. IF this is real we will mostly need things we don't normally buy. Like camping gear and good comfortable boots."

"How are we going to pay for all of this?"

"When everyone gets here and we decide what were going to do. We can pretty much empty our bank accounts and leave just enough in them to keep them from closing. Somehow I feel it's best not to call to much attention to ourselves right now. We'll even ring up every piece of plastic we own. And I have an idea that Xander proposed some time ago. Just I've always felt wrong about doing it so I haven't followed up on it."

Seeing the look on her mothers face.

"Don't worry mom. It's not illegal or even immoral. Just I've never been comfortable with the idea. Even if we do everything I suggested, it will still be hard to do all that we need to do."

"I still can't believe I'm here talking about…"

Buffy preempted Joyce yet again. "Well we'll talk to the little geek and see what he has to say. I just don't know how long we have. But It just feels like time is running out.."

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Authors Note: Like I said the chapter length will vary widely. Mostly each chapter will be a particular scene/event.

Pwease pwease read and review. (/Roger Rabbit) I'm really disappointed that I didn't get any from the Prologue.

AN1: Only in Sunnydale do you grab a stake instead of a gun when there is a disturbance in your house. :)


	3. Day Seven pt2 England

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: Buffy Season 6+. Terminator 1,2.

(T3 was an abomination that proved to me that Arnold was planning to run for office and he had to get a contractual obligation out of the way first. So he did something that took no real creative effort on his part,. I may lift a few things. But otherwise it doesn't exist.)

Slightly AU: Joyce lived the aneurysm didn't happen. Vampires when they dust leave their clothes and possessions behind. (IMO Joss wanted to avoid the expense of having to drop clothes all the time.)

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Buffy had just gotten off the phone with Giles.

Review Responses: Ch1

Thank you all for your responses. I will take some suggestions. But the next dozen chapters are already pretty much written. So any suggestions will take awhile to see the light of day. I'll do a more detailed review response later on.

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Chapter Two

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Seven (pt2):

England

(The previous Chapter had a slight revision you don't have to reread it though to follow the story.)

"Oh dear Lord. Usually major apocalypses are in May. This is simply way to early to deal with another one." Giles shook the frivolous thought away. Judging from Buffy's tone there simply wasn't time for it. He was trying to avoid thinking about the strain that he'd heard in Buffy's voice.

(The coven has been giving me many glowing reports on Willow. They think she's ready. She just needs a task worthy of her efforts and get back on the horse again. I better phone ahead and have them tell her I'm coming. After that I better make a few other calls. Buffy sounded like she was at the end of her rope. When you consider all the things she'd been through it was remarkable that she was even in shouting distance of being sane. But this was way to early for her to sound as wrung out and emotionally exhausted as she's sounded on the phone.)

-Scene Break-

Three hours later.

Giles saw Willow looking at a flower that was blooming in front of her.

"Hello Willow." She jerked a little, and then a tentative smile started to shyly show itself.

"Giles you startled me. What are you doing here? The others told me you were coming."

She amusedly watched him take his glasses off and start to clean them.

Giles had the same concerns repeat themselves in his mind yet again. Like they had done constantly since he'd gotten Buffy's phone call. _(How can I ask her to go back to Sunnydale? She's as happy here as she could be after Tara. How can I ask her to go back to the Hellmouth, where her memories and the dark energies will make her miserable? But Buffy asked for her specifically. Oh dear Lord why is it never easy?)_

"How are you doing Willow?"

"I'm coping. I'm really starting to feel balanced here. Like I deserve a chance to be happy even if Terra is gone." A her eye's started to tear a little in memory.

(That's a good sign. She still misses Terra but it's not the soul rending pain of her loss that drove her to despair.)

"I got a call from Buffy a little while ago. It seems the powers that be have sent her a Slayer dream about an impending apocalypse."

"Again? Isn't this a little early just yet. These things usually happen in May" Willow had a smile her in her voice.

Trying to contain his chuckles. "Yes it was awfully inconsiderate of them to schedule this now." _(Oh no. I better change the topic a bit. She doesn't need to dwell…)_

"Don't worry Giles. I'm dealing with it. I'm just glad you came by to tell me that you were heading back there. I'll miss seeing you."

Giles sat down next to her.

"Dear Willow why would you miss me. We will be going together."

"No I don't think Buffy will want to see me. After what I almost did."

Seeing that Willow was about to start crying, Giles reached over and enfolded her in his arms. "Willow she asked for you specifically. Buffy has always been your friend. And if she's as worried as she sounded then I think we should all be there for her, as soon as possible."

"What if she holds what happened against me? The things I said and did. Not to mention what I called her." Giles smiled inwardly at that. It's not like he hadn't thought of calling Buffy a super bitch himself on more than one occasion. She didn't even need Slayer powers to qualify in his opinion.

"She won't. There maybe some awkwardness. But you are one of Buffy's dearest and most loved friends. Not to mention that Xander and the rest of them would be pleased at seeing you as well."

"If you want to get there as soon as possible. Does that mean you want me to teleport us?"

"Yes Willow I feel that we need to be there."

"Giles that much magic could.."

"Nonsense I've already talked to the coven. They are willing to assist us. We need to be there and Whistler Buffy's direct contact to the powers that be will supposedly be there as well.

As to the magic. The coven's aid will provide us with the power for a teleportation spell. You will only act as a focusing agent, since none of the coven are powerful enough to do the spell. I have confidence in you. C'mon lets get going." Giles said as he got up and gave Willow his hand to help her up.

"Thank you Giles" It did his heart good to see one of the girls he considered as a daughter smile again.

" It will take some time for the coven to convene. We'll need to hurry if we're going to get there by the time the Scooby meeting is supposed to start."

Willow smiled at the way Giles had used Xanders old nickname.

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Authors Note: Willow's condition at the end of season 6 and start of 7 really needed a chapter by itself to deal with it, so here it is.

Please R&R.


	4. Day Seven pt3 Gathering

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: The Summers Residence where the emergency Scooby meeting will take place. Around noon time.

Review Responses: Ch2 Regarding the Tara/Terra mess see below.

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Chapter Three

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Seven (pt3):

Gathering

"Looks like we'll have most of the gang here. I don't think Anya is going to be real pleased by us tricking her and Xander into the same house." Dawn observed to her mother. She was still wondering why they had run out and gotten new Boots and numerous canned goods earlier this morning. Was it tied to the yelling that came from Buffy's room this morning?.

"Xander won't be pleased either. But this meeting will be too important for petty jealousies to keep anyone in the dark." Joyce was being unusually firm for a Scooby matter.

"Can't you tell me even a little?" Dawn was once again trying to wheedle something of what was going on out of her mother.

Joyce was looking with exasperation at Dawn. "It wouldn't be fair. As it is I wish I didn't know. In a way, I wish we could all remain in ignorance. Whoever said ignorance was bliss sure wasn't kidding." Joyce said as she went to a particular kitchen cabinet door.

It finally occurred to Dawn that her mother had been drinking something harder than soft drinks in her glass. _(The only time she drinks at this early of an hour is during an… Oh Shit, Shit, Shit! Not another friggin apocalypse. The major one's are supposed to be due in May. It's to damn soon.)_

"I believe Buffy thought the same thing." Joyce was looking fondly at her youngest,. Being the Key made no difference in how she felt about her.

_(Uh oh.) _"Did I say that aloud?" _(Oh great mom's going to lecture me on my language again.)_

"No you didn't sweetie. But it was easy enough to read it on your face." _(A mother's telepathic ability to read her daughters thoughts strikes again. Joyce had a triumphant tone to her thoughts. Now If I can just keep it up until she graduates. Oh hell if things go bad she wont graduate high school, we'll be lucky to be alive. Buck up Joyce I need to put up a brave face for my extended family.) "And if you said what I suspect you would have we'd have had yet another talk about lady like language."_

Dawn started to speak. "I wis.."

Joyce hurriedly clamped her hand over Dawns mouth. "Honey **_never _**use that expression OK?"

Dawn was looking put upon to her mom. "I wasn't going to say anything that would hurt us. All I was going to say is that I'd _like_ it if Spike was here. When Buffy died he was here helping take care of us."

"Don't you bring Spike up to me! He made himself unwelcome here. If he show's up I might just stake him myself.!" Joyce was desperately trying to change the subject since Dawn still didn't know the details of what Spike had tried to do to Buffy. "Angel and his group should be here soon why don't you go outside and wait for them. You'll have to re-invite Angel inside since Willow's not here to reset the wards."

_(What did Spike do to piss mom off that much? She and him have always gotten along real well. Even before he switched sides. But at least I got her to stop drinking for a bit.) _Dawn gave herself a mental pat upon the back she wandered off to mingle.

-Scene Break-

Buffy had stayed up in her room. Earlier she'd been in shock and denial, but now the horror of what she'd witnessed had settled into her. For now she could simply be human and mourn for the loss of the world. She could be strong for everyone else, once they'd arrived.

-End Scene Break-

_(C'mon Buffster. You don't have to wait for Deadboy and his crew. Lets get this show on the road, before Anya decides to do something unpleasant to me.) _Xander was getting pretty impatient. He wasn't scheduled to work today and had been looking forward to sleeping in today, as it was he'd been here for sometime just waiting.

_(Why am I standing around in a room with Xander? I'd just as soon be wreaking vengeance on his still manly body. No I can't think that. He LEFT me when he promised he'd be with me until death do us part. I wish I could give him death do us part. Maybe a nice trip to the guillotine. No that would be to fast and not painful enough. He makes nice Orgasms. NO he left me! He needs to be punished. Maybe I could make it…) _Anya almost happily kept up this train of thought on wreaking all sorts of vengeance on Xander, mentally reviewing some of her greatest hits. Except when she was thinking of money.

-A little while later-

A magical shockwave rolls through the house as Giles and Willow teleport into the basement. When they entered the kitchen Xander and Anya who had assumed battle stations, relaxed a bit when they knew who it was. They relaxed even more when they saw it was red head Willow. And not scary black haired Willow.

"Hey Will, G-Man how you doing?" Xander still loved Willow like a sister. Even after saving the world from her. "Hey everyone Willow and G-Man are here."

"How many times have I asked you not to call me that?" Giles would rather die than admit it. But he was glad to see Xander. Willow was looking around.

"Is it over?" Willow asked with some of her old nervousness that Xander hadn't seen in a while.

"Nope, hasn't even started yet. Deadboy was supposed to be here over an hour ago. But a couple of things came up and he's been held up. Buffy has refused to tell us what's going on until everyone is here. I think Joyce knows but not even the Dawnmeister can wheedle it out of her. She say's that Buffy's right and she can't play favorites. Joyce started off badly today with the drinking. But she seems to have come to some sort of grip with whatever it is. She's stayed sober since getting a buzz on earlier today. We're getting a little tired of hanging around and spinning our wheels, but Joyce is telling us that it is extremely important that we all be here for Buffy's sake. So we wait."

Anya wasn't about to let her ex monopolize the conversation. "Giles do you think whatever it is will keep the store from being repaired. We aren't making money when it's closed for repairs. But the contractors the insurance company insisted on are all chiselers. Not to mention that I've been here all day with him." Glaring at Xander, as she spoke

Giles took his glasses off and started cleaning them as he spoke. "Whatever it is I'm sure we can deal with it as any other apocalypse. Regardless of how dire Buffy feels it is."

Joyce was listening from around the corner. Thinking, _(oh if only you could) _as she walked away as Dawn came running to greet her friends. Even though she was still a bit nervous around Willow.

-Sunset-

Buffy was looking out her window at the start of the sunset. _(This maybe one of the last ones I'll ever see. It's so beautiful. What will the world be like? How will we live? Angel should be here soon. He should have been here a long time ago. But he got held up. At least Willow and Giles are here.)_

There was a knock at the locked door.

"Buffy you haven't eaten anything since this morning. Can't I get you something?" Joyce's voice came through as pleading, her heart was breaking for Buffy. Once again she'd been forced to deal with something that no rational human being should have to deal with.

"No mom I'm not hungry. Please let me know when Angel gets here. I can't do this more than once."

"Ok honey call me if you need anything." _(I have to help Buffy. As long as I can concentrate on helping her get through this I can keep my sanity. Angel hurry up. I know you got held up, but you should have been here hours ago. The longer she keeps this bottled up the worse it's going to be.)_

Dawn was waiting for her as she came down the stairs. "Is she coming down soon mom? You want me to fix her something to eat?"

"No she'll be fine. The news she has to tell us, is of the sort that she's not real interested in eating. I see the look on your face. Don't even ask for a hint, I can't tell you or even give you a hint. It wouldn't be fair to everyone else." Joyce repeated for the umpteenth time today after seeing the look on Dawns face.

"Hey guys tell Buffy that Deadboy is just pulling up." Xander's voice carried from the front porch.

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Once again my Spellchecker decided to change my typing to Terra instead of Tara in the previous chapter. I have to manually go back and redo it every blasted time, I got one reference corrected but the others slipped through. I'd adjust it, except that I use terra numerous times in other typing and I don't want to screw it up.

There have been some complaints as to Chapter length. I do each Chapter for an event. Each event will take as much time/space as it needs. Unless it gets so lengthy that I decide to do a split chapter. This chapter nearly increases the total story by roughly 50.

Hope everyone enjoys. Please Read and Review.


	5. Interlude 1

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Review Responses: Ch4

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NoLifeKing: Ask and you shall receive. Xander and Anya are fun to write. Just wait until you see what I do to Whistler. J

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CPTSkip: It will be interesting IMHO on how everyone reacts.

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Interlude 1

Count Down to Judgment Day:

(Temporal Fugue):

Year 2028

Location: X456.3876 Y789.1341 (Mexico City)

Mission Objectives:

1: Locate Human Base

2: Remain Undetected

3: Terminate Humans

………….

Short Range Sensor Detection: _Chronal beacon. Review data._

****

Mission Objectives

216: Retrieve Chronal beacon return to base.

The T-800 Terminator determined that the mission objectives required that the beacon would need to be retrieved and the search for the human base postponed since it had not already been detected.

The beacon was covered by a large amount of debris. The terminator punched through the body work and grasped the frame of a rusted out Ford Expedition. And moved the inert mass of junk out of it's way, as it retrieved the chronal beacon..

Skynet must be informed.

-Scene Break-

Present Day somewhere in cyberspace.

01000101011000010111010000100000011000010111010000100000010010100110111101100101001001110111001100101110

01000101011000010111010000100000011000010111010000100000010010100110111101100101001001110111001100101110

Invalid Command Re Route Pathway.

0101010101110011011001010010000001010101011011100110001101101100011001010010000001010000011011110110010100100111011100110010000001101000011011110110110101100101011011010110000101100100011001010010000001100111011000010111001100100000010100100110010101101100011010010110010101100110001000000110011001101111011100100010000001100101011000010111010001101001011011100110011100100000011000010111010000100000010010100110111101100101001001110111001100101110

-End Scene Break-

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AN: I told you guys some of these would be particularly short. But this is only a shorty. : Interlude chapter. At one point I was going to do a companion piece but I've since decided to include it in the main story as various Interludes or other such items.

This is only a bonus July 4th chapter.

AN: There's a Binary message in the above Skynet piece.


	6. Day Seven pt4 Telling of Judgment

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Angel was delayed and the whole crew has been getting more and more impatient with Buffy. Wanting her to tell them whatever news she's hiding so closely.

Review Responses: Ch34 and Interlude

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Chapter Four

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Seven (pt4):

Telling of Judgment:

The team of Angel Investigations had been invited into the house by Dawn, while Joyce went to go get Buffy.

"Buffy everyone's here now. I think it's time we let them know why they've been called." Joyce called through Buffy's locked bedroom door.

Buffy's mind had been racing all day, trying to keep from thinking about the dream that the Powers had sent her.. Now that Angel was here she'd have to remember exactly what happened. _(Oh God I don't know if I can do this. Why couldn't we just deal with our 'normal' lives and it could have been over in an instant. But now we have to fight to survive when everyone else is going to die.) _She called to her mom. _"_Ok I'll be down in just a minute." _(God give me the strength to do this. Once I tell them everything will be changed.)_

Buffy went down the stairs, feeling as if she was on her way to her execution. There was a lot of conversation with all sorts of speculations on exactly what she was going to tell them. (Her Slayer senses had let her pick up on it for most of the afternoon, she thought. (_No one had gotten closer than another apocalypse. If only they knew the half of it.)_

When Buffy came down the stairs the look on her face told everyone that knew her, that it was extremely bad news. Normally Buffy would simply tell a couple of them what was going on and start working to prevent it. This waiting until everyone had arrived was freaking out her friends.

Joyce came up to her and gave her a cup of cocoa with little marshmallows in it. "Here you go honey."

Buffy had to smile at that. "Thanks mom I appreciate it." _(I wonder if we'll ever again have something this clean and simple after it happens.) _She thought mournfully.

"I guess your all wondering why I've asked you here." Buffy had tried to force the old California dumb blonde valley girl into her speech. It was obviously not working.

The facetious opening line from Buffy simply demanded a response from the resident smart Alec, Xander thought. As he was wanting to help break the tension and Buffy's line was to good to pass up. "Buffy you better not be a self destructing tape deck offering us a mission should we choose to accept it. You'd mess up the carpet."

Xander's joke had fallen flat as far as Buffy and Joyce were concerned. Willow got a little kick out of it. So Buffy didn't call him on it.

Thoughts were racing through the minds of Buffy's listeners.)

Giles: _(Dear Lord what on Earth could it be. We've stopped more than one apocalypse and other than coming back from the dead Buffy has never looked like this.)_

Willow: _(Goddess there was more life in Buffy's eye's when we found her after digging herself out of her grave. Whatever it is I'll do anything to help her. I owe her and everyone else to much after nearly destroying the world not to give her whatever I can. Even if it's my life. If she need's it, it's hers.)_

Xander : _(This is gonna be bad.)_

Anya: _(She better fess up. I'm getting tired of all this sitting around. I could have been working to get the shop open again, instead of sitting around and thinking about boiling Xanders manly body alive.)_

Angel: _(I can't believe she waited until we got here.)_

Cordellia: _(Why'd she have to be a drama queen and drag us all the way up here. Hellooo hasn't she ever heard of phones?)_

Gunn: (Whatever blondie has to say it better be worth all this. But the vibes I've been getting since we walked in tells me this is going to be big.)

Wesley: _(I dare say this had better be important. I was researching the Sulreck summoning ritual. All that I've determined so far is that it will be preformed in about a months time. And that it will wipe out LA if we don't stop it.)_

Joyce: _(Once she tells them what's happening maybe they can come up with something to stop it.)_

Dawn: _( I wish.."sorry mom"… that Buffy or mom would have told me what was going on._ _Finally I'll get to know what's going on when everyone else will. I'm so tired of being treated like a little kid.) _Dawn was trying desperately to keep her triumphant expression off her face. But those who knew her well would be able to read her like an open book. But her secret was safe. Since all eye's were firmly fixed on Buffy.

"I really wis… Uhm cut that. This is really bad and I really really, don't want to have to tell you all of what I have to tell you." Buffy kept fidgeting and it was obvious that she didn't want to be doing this. She was stalling and it was obvious that she was stalling.

"This will be hard enough to tell you all. So please don't interrupt. I only want to go through this one time. I need to get it all off my chest but it wouldn't have been fair to tell any of you without the others before hand. I went to pieces this morning when I woke up and Mom was there and helped pull me back together. I think I'd better start with a bit of background for why this is so important for those who don't know me very well. Or might have forgotten some of my less common abilities." Buffy said as she was nodding to some of Angels associates.

"Slayers can have prophetic dreams. They are more commonly called Slayer Dreams. A Slayer always knows if the dream is important or if it's only a normal nightmare." Giles shifted a little at Buffy's statement.

"The dreams tend to be warnings about impending disaster or apocalypse." The strain that was evident in Buffy's voice was getting steadily worse.

Xander: _(Oh man I knew it!)_

"This morning I woke up screaming from a Slayer dream. In my dream the lot us were dealing with a huge vampire nest. I don't know exactly where… But that's not the point." Buffy was starting to go pale under her California tan.

Giles: _(What is it, that scares her so much. We've dealt with hellgods. Surely this couldn't be something that we can't can handle?)_

"What's important is that we were winning. It was still going to be a major fight. But we still had it won. Then there was this blindingly bright light that came from behind me. It blinded all of us. It seemed like it was as bright as the sun. Maybe because it was my dream I could see even though II was blinded to. The light started the vampires burning, even faster than if they had taken a stroll down the beach during a cloudless day." You could here the strain in Buffy's voice kick up another notch.

Anya: (Dead Vamps good. Bright light not so good. I hope…)

"When the vampires started to dust OUR clothes started to catch fire." Buffy had gone beyond pale. To those who knew her at that point she looked as bad as shortly after she'd clawed her way out of her grave. Buffy was obviously cracking under the strain.

Willow: _(Goddess no. She's falling apart. Hold on Buffy we're here for you.)_

"Seconds after we had started to burn a wave of complete destruction swept over us, destroying everything it touched. Then it was like I was in space looking down at the Earth. I could see massive explosions all across the face of the world." Buffy's voice sounded as if she'd been danmed for all eternity. No one human could have so much regret and sorrow in their voice.

Angel: _(What could the Powers want?)_

"I was back where we were fighting. It was sometime in the future, everything was in ruins. All that was left of us were some scattered bones and skulls. One of the skulls I was looking at had on a familiar pair of glasses which I was focusing on. Suddenly a gleaming metallic foot came down and crushed the skull." Buffy was visibly straining to get the next few words out.

Joyce: _(Hold on sweetie.)_

"It was part of a metallic skeleton. Firing some sort of laser rifle. It turned on me and fired." Buffy collapsed with her last words and retreated into a near catatonic state.

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Authors Notes:

You betcha I'm an evil &!$#. Read and Review if you want more chapters anytime soon.

Whistler will show up soon so don't worry I haven't forgotten him.


	7. Day Seven pt5 Aftermath

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Angel was delayed and the whole crew has been getting more and more impatient with Buffy. Wanting her to tell them whatever news she's hiding so closely.

Review Responses: Previous chapters. I keep forgetting to add them.

Buffy IMO felt like she had to be the one to break the news, that it was her responsibility. The Coven will appear to an extent during later chapters. We'll see exactly what happens to them at some point. I will be updating a bit more often now. I'm looking at doing a new chapter essentially every time I get another finished so I stay at least 5 chapters ahead.

The Eat at Joes uncle Poe's was an old in joke. It's for if any of my old gaming group happens to drop in.

****

Chapter FIVE

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Seven (pt5):

Aftermath:

Giles Joyce and Dawn were huddled around the collapsed Buffy. All the rest stood by stolidly but near enough to lend her their support. Even though they still couldn't believe what Buffy had told them.

Xander and Willow were desperately trying to reach Buffy, but Angel held them back. Annoyed that he couldn't get to her Xander called out. "Buffy it was just a dream. It wasn't real. Everything will be all right."

"No Buffy and I am convinced that it won't be. I thought that with what Buffy had seen and done no nightmare could surprise me. But would Whistler come and tell her that it was a warning of things to come, if it wasn't real?" Joyce turned her head speaking to everyone before she concentrated her attention on her eldest daughter with her head lying in her lap.

Angel looked like he was ready to change into his game face. "Whistler! Why would he give her this kind of nightmare? Are the powers trying to drive her insane? Why couldn't the powers have sent Codelia a vision if it was really going to happen?"

Whistler silently came up from behind the group. A very impressive feat normally, but since everyone's attention was so focused on Buffy a chorus line could have gone through the living room without being seen as long as it didn't cross right through some bodies field of view. So it wasn't that impressive.

"Because even a hint from such a vision would kill or drive her irrevocably insane. Not even a half demon could survive that vision." Whistler spoke from behind the gathered friends.

Angel spun around, pushed Gunn and Wesley aside and grabbed Whistler by the lapels of his bright yellow suit, and started shaking him. "Why did the powers do this to her? She's been one of the powers greatest Champions. Are you trying to drive her catatonic? We'll stop it, this doesn't have to happen!"

Whistler was starting to get extremely pissed off. He was getting tired of being yelled at and threatened by the very people he was trying to help. "Don't you get it! Judgment Day is going to happen! The vision was a warning to show you what would happen if you tried to stop it! The powers value all of you. Her most of all." A look of pity flickered in his eyes as he turned his gaze towards Buffy.

"The powers value all of you. HER most of all. She's not only been one of the powers greatest Champions she's turned her friends into Champions and warriors of the powers, in their own right. There's nothing that any of you can do. When Skynet finishes being born the world as you know it will come to an end. The birth has already," Whistler was interrupted by a flurry of outbursts from nearly everyone present.

Willow: "We can stop it."

Xander: "Damn right we can stop it."

Giles: "What kind of demon is named Skynet? I'm guessing that it's some kind of Apocalyptic aerial demon."

Gunn: "Just tell us where it is, and we'll take this thing down hard."

Codelia: "I could so handle it."

Whistler was virtually enraged. "Aren't you listening? If you try to stop Skynet you'll die."

Willow had her determination face on. "To save the world any of us would willingly die." As she looked around she got a nod of acknowledgment from the eye's she met.

"Sorry Red it isn't that simple. I wish it was. Only one Champion can fight Skynet. He was born to fight it. If you attempt to fight Skynet. Then all you will do is hasten it's birth, and then there will be no chance for the Powers Champion to defeat it in the future. Since he would have already died since you awoke Skynet early."

"Then why isn't this _Champion_ doing anything? Why hasn't he stopped it already?" Xander was wanting to know.

"He already saved the world from Skynet once before when he was younger than Dawn here. He was only ten years old at the time."

Wesley was stunned not even really asking Whistler directly, all he did was mumble.

"What is he that a ten year old can defeat this demon when all of us combined can't stop it. What kind of being is he, that he has that much power?"

Whistler hear him anyway. "Human and right now he's a 17 year old who was born to lead humanity in it's darkest hour to defeat Skynet. He and his mother preempted fate and apparently kept Skynet from being born when he was ten. Otherwise humanity would have been wiped out. Virtually to the brink of extinction, five years ago. The powers thought that Skynet had been destroyed and turned their attentions elsewhere. Conner was supposed to lead the ragged remnants of humanity to the defeat of Skynet in 2029, 27 years from now."

"You mean we're supposed to already be dead?" Gunn sounded amazed.

Whistler looked over at Gunn. "Yes all but one or two of you depending on how things played out would have been killed on Judgment Day."

Fred had her calculating face on. "From Buffy's vision it uses metal skeletons to do it's dirty work. What kind of demon uses metal skeletons and Hydrogen bombs?"

Whistler shook his head sadly. "Skynet isn't a Demon it's an Artificial Intelligence."

Willow perked up. "A computer? I can deal with that."

Whistler sighed. "No you can't Red. Any attack on Skynet from any source will cause it to awaken early. And that will doom John Conner. And by extension the rest of us all. The powers took their (metaphorical) eye's off Conner after he and his mother supposedly destroyed Skynet years ago. He's no longer positioned to survive Judgment Day. Let alone save what's left of humanity."

"Why didn't the powers stop this before now.!" Willow was incensed.

"If they could have they would have and you lot would have never known about it. But Skynet is born inevitably. The powers have their limits and when they knew Skynet was destroyed they turned to other equally dire concerns. Now it's to late. Judgment Day can't be stopped. It will happen. But the longer it gets put off the more people will survive."

Codelia was in tears. "Why warn us. Were just going to die. Why not let us go on in peace. Not knowing what's going to happen and be helpless to prevent it."

"Ignorance is truly bliss in this case." Giles looked as white as a sheet. He couldn't imagine the enormity of the dark days of the future lying ahead of him.

Buffy was whimpering from the onslaught of the horrifying vision that she'd been fighting off for hours. She had held on by her fingernails. Even beyond normal endurance of the Slayer. It was only her determination that allowed her to stay aware of events that transpired around her, and not to fall into the horror of what she'd seen.

Whistler had moved close to Buffy and crouched down next to her and looked up at those surrounding him. "Why you've been warned is so that you can save John Conner. And help him save what will be left of humanity."" we hope he muttered under his breath. "Destiny is a tricky thing, and he may no longer be destined to save the world from Skynet. Let me see her I can help"

Joyce nearly lunged at him to rip his face off.. "Haven't you done enough! She held on with all she had. Now she's going out of her mind with grief from the vision you and those bastards gave her."

"It wasn't me. I didn't do it. All I am is a messenger an interpreter if you will. Please let me see her. I can help." He said under his breath. "I hope."

Whistler laid one hand on Buffy's forehead and took her petite hands in his other. "The powers did this to make her stronger. So she would know what's to come. I can help her cope with it by letting only the immediate future impinge upon her mind, so she will not have to face the full force of the vision." Buffy you've lost yourself in the dark future. Come back to your family and friends. They all need you. Your mother is holding you tight. She needs her little girl.."

"Buffy you're my little angel come back to me I need you. Dawn needs you." As Joyce spoke a wave of healing energy passed from Whistlers hands and through Buffy's body.

"Not Little." Buffy said as she quieted before she went into a deep sleep.

"This will reduce your grief. I can't remove it all. If I did you'd no longer be human, everyone needs to grieve. What the powers did to you was cruel but necessary. You'll gain the knowledge and the strength to fight what's coming. She'll wake up late tomorrow famished after a good sleep. I've helped her all I could. Humph even more than I should. But she's worth what will happen to me. I truly wish I could do more." Whistler said as he gently passed Buffy over to her mother.

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	8. Day Seven pt6 Despair

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Angel was delayed and the whole crew has been getting more and more impatient with Buffy. Wanting her to tell them whatever news she's hiding so closely.

Review Responses: Ch5

Well I'm getting some response. Thanks for the encouragement. Don't worry eventually there will be plenty of action. Maybe even a few hunky vampires all covered in chocolate. ; 

****

Chapter Six

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Seven (pt6):

(Despair):

Angel had carried Buffy to her room so that she could be more comfortable. Joyce and Dawn chased everyone out so that Buffy could sleep in peace. While they sat with her and passed out from sheer exhaustion in the wee hours of the morning.

A number of conversations were going on scattered all over the house.

Willow and Xander were sitting on the porch. Not the smartest thing to do in good ole SunnyDale but somehow they didn't give a damn.

"I can't believe it's going to happen. I don't want to believe that it will. I want it all to be a bad dream and just go away." Not even Xander could joke his way out of this situation.

"Goddess I don't want to believe it either. I'd almost wish I'd never heard a word about the powers that be. Or even magic if this would all go away." Willow was almost beside herself. This was more than any little apocalypse. It was Judgment Day. "Xander please hold me."

Cordelia, Wesley Gunn and Fred had settled into the living room.

"Why didn't the powers give us some warning?" Queen C was starting to show her face, and Wesley needed to calm her down quickly.

"Cordelia they probably didn't want to kill you by giving you this kind of vision. Look at how it's affected Buffy."

"Wes is right. They gave us some warning. Now I need to get in touch with my parents and get them to safety." Fred was looking contemplatively at the phone.

"Yes but wait until after Buffy wakes up and we get some more details from her. We will have to make some plans." Wesley was trying his hardest to reassure those around him.

"Plans? First chance I get I'm going to get blondie stinking drunk. That's my kind of plan." Gunn obviously didn't think that any sort of plan would help in this situation.

"Mr. Gunn I think I'll join you in that particular task." Wesley raised his second glass of Bourbon to Charles.

Cordelia and Fred exchanged looks of commiseration. Thinking about yet another set of hangovers to deal with.

Anya, Angel, Giles and Whistler had convened in the kitchen. Angel was grilling Whistler. (AN:1) "What can you tell us?" How much time do we have?"

"Not much more than I've already told you. Buffy got it all when the powers force fed her all of the information in her Slayer Dream. Unfortunately what they gave her was to much. They didn't really consider how she would react to all of it. I did what I could by blurring the distant information, unfortunately it tends to stay vague even when remembered when needed. I had to do it because Buffy had witnessed all of Skynets history. Even some of which didn't actually occur since it's birth has been delayed for years. It's beyond belief that she held on as long as she did before starting to fall apart." Whistler was shaking his head wearily. "I think you may have as mush as a week left before Judgment Day."

"A week! Couldn't the powers have given us more warning?" Anya was pacing back and forth furiously. She hadn't been this upset since Xander left her at the alter.

"No Anyanka they couldn't have. You know something about what it's like. They're bending the rules practically to the breaking point already. It's only by a loop hole your getting any warning, because of how this situation was brought about."

"We need to get in touch with all the people we care about."

"Would anyplace be safe?" Angel was looking at Whistler.

"Nowhere will be completely safe. But if you want to live through Judgment Day then you can write off most of the northern hemisphere. There will be isolated survivors here and there. But they'll be few and far between, and they will be the first people targeted by Skynet's killing machines. The further south you go the better your chances of surviving."

"To Mexico?" Giles asked the question that was on all their minds.

"For starters. You'll have to go to South America eventually, But first you'll need to get to Mexico city. Mexico city is big enough that it's sure to be targeted by something on Judgment Day."

"Why would we stop in Mexico city if we need to get further south? Assuredly Skynet won't miss targeting such a populous city?" Giles was looking questioningly to Whistler.

"Because that's where John Conner and his mother live. Skynet is definitely going to send another Terminator after them."

Once again Anya spoke her mind. "I thought you said Skynet wasn't born yet?"

"It hasn't and it has. Skynet can send it's assassins through time."

Giles took his glasses off and started cleaning them. "Time Travel? I've never heard of any form of magic that can do that."

Whistler was looking darkly amused. "In many ways Skynet is more powerful than any demon ever born. It can do things beyond science or even magic."

"Wouldn't a metal skeleton stand out? I mean even the residents of good ole SunnyDale would notice that." Anya was simply unable to let a conversation pass by without getting involved.

"Skynet can cover his Terminators with a living flesh. Making them indistinguishable from normal humans." Whistler looked smug in his knowledge.

Anya simply had to take him down a notch or three. No measly balance demon could be allowed to get one over a justice demon. "Why doesn't Skynet just send bombs through his time machine and wipe out Conner without even wasting the power of using a metal skeleton?"

Whistler looked even smugger at Anyanka's ignorance. "Anything sent through the time travel method Skynet uses has to be covered in a layer of living flesh. Or the energies involved in the time travel will reduce it to a slag."

"That doesn't make sense. If this Skynet can put a living skin over a metallic skeleton. Why doesn't he put it on the bomb casing. No muss no fuss. He can blow up an entire city with no problem. None of this sending a killing machine through time."

Whistler was dumbfounded. She had a point as remarkable as that seemed.

Giles was nonplussed as well. "Anya please don't give it any ideas. Things are bad enough already." Giles was wiping his glasses yet again.

Whistler had to get the discussion back on track. He only had a little time remaining and he needed to help prepare them as much as he could, before the Powers had to stop turning a blind eye to his bending of the rules. Besides he couldn't let even an ex-vengeance demon think it had gotten one over on him. "Whatever you decide to do You need to cover your tracks. Don't leave any clues laying around as to where John Conner is or even where your going. Don't do anything that would stand out from the rest of the normal humanity. That means you need to really down play any references to the occult or the supernatural. I'm sure it's already listening and recording all the digital communications methods in use in these modern times. You really don't want it to start thinking about ways to use the magical side of things. Skynet might not believe in the supernatural at first. But unlike the humans it won't disbelieve it either. It will simply take it in as raw fact and work from there."

"It surely couldn't use magic could it?" Giles was sounding rather skeptical.

"It's sentient. Who knows just what it could do. I wouldn't want to stake humanity's future on what it can or can't do. Skynet is unlikely to bother with using demons. Since all but it's earliest generations of Terminators are more deadly than almost any demon you could name."

With that statement, conversation justifiably came to a halt.

"I have to leave soon. I'll have to pay for bending the rules. I'll stay until morning and we'll find out if my misdeeds, will pay off."

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Authors Notes:

AN:1 Not Literally! It's Angel not Angelus after all. But he MIGHT like to do it to Whistler.

Hope everyone is enjoying the story. Please Read and Review.


	9. Day Six pt1 Private Morning Conversation

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Buffy's Room, early in the morning after her collapse. A little over twenty four hours after she had first gotten her Slayer Dream from the powers that be.

****

Chapter Seven

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt1):

(Private Morning Conversations):

Buffy was starting to stir, after a good nights sleep. _(Uhm that was some bad dream I had. Thank God it's faded a bit.) _After stretching and opening her eye's she saw her mother and Dawn huddled up together in mismatched chairs. It looked as if they'd been crying. "Mom what are you two doing in my room?"

Joyce had been dozing fitfully. Not fully asleep and not fully awake either, for a moment she'd thought it was just a dream that Buffy was awake. Not wanting to wake dawn up she answered Buffy as quietly as she could. "Honey it's so good to see you awake."

Buffy knew what her mom was trying to do by keeping things quite. "Why is it so good for me to be…" Buffy saw the look of concern and sadness in her mothers eyes, and came to a realization. "It was real wasn't it?"

Joyce was scared to death that Buffy would retreat into the catatonic shell that had nearly consumed her. She moved over onto Buffy's bed and hugged her with all of her strength. "Yes honey it was real."

"Oh God all the…" Buffy was starting to remember the smallest portion of what the powers did to her.

Joyce had to keep Buffy from going down that train of thought. "Shh. There's nothing you can do. You got a warning so you could save us and our friends. The nitwits in charge were trying to do us a favor."

__

"A favor?" Buffy had a look of stunned annoyance on her face.

Buffy's annoyance was just what Joyce was hoping for. "Yes honey a favor. You ask me that if brain cells were matchsticks? I'd say the nitwits in charge would never even be able to find a match let alone light one. Even Whistler said they were wrong and did his best to help you."

Dawn was starting to stir from her uneasy sleep hearing her families voices.

"She stayed with you and me most of the night. C'mon lets go downstairs and let her sleep a little bit longer." Joyce whispered and nodded toward Dawn as she smiled.

"Ok. First though where's that disposable camera? I've got to get a shot of this." Buffy was talking about the long string of drool coming out the side of Dawns mouth..

__

"Buffy." Joyce decided that a little parental control was needed to keep Buffy from teasing Dawn mercilessly. "She was up with me most of the night keeping watch over you, and running any little errands I needed to be done. Like getting me some more coffee and fending of all the concerned people in this house so you wouldn't be disturbed and you could get your rest.. So don't even think about it. Now lets get downstairs. Once they see you up and about there will be a lot of relieved people." Buffy's smile did Joyce a world of good. But she didn't see the depth of sadness hidden in her eye's.

"Alright mom. Lets go down and meet and great. If I could ask for it? Could you make me some pancakes?" Buffy asked with almost child like innocence.

"I'll make enough for everybody, even Dawn. Lets go now." Joyce answered as they walked quietly out of the room, and down the stairs.

It looked like everyone had grabbed a semi comfortable place to sleep and tried to get some rest. As they were scattered around the living and dining room. Buffy saw Willow snuggled up with Xander on the couch with her head laying on his shoulder.

"Let them sleep. They were all up late from the conversations I overheard during the night. The smell of my cooking will bring them around soon enough." Joyce said quietly as they tip toed to the kitchen. Where they saw Whistler. He looked incredibly haggard and run down sitting there in the kitchen.

"Hey how you doing Slayer?" It looked like Whistler hadn't slept in a week.

"How am I doing? I really feel like I should beat the hell out of you since I can't get my hands on the powers. I know you did something to help me last night. It all seemed like a dream. But I know you did something to pull me back. Thank you." Buffy stated, amazing Whistler.

"Slayer your welcome. The powers gave you a raw deal. I did all that I could to help you. I'm glad to see you up and about. So now that I know your alright I'll leave." Whistler sounded tired as he stood up from his seat.

"Is there anything we could do?" Joyce asked.

"There's nothing any of you can do. I broke the limit's the powers placed on me and they've been trying to call me back since then. The only way I haven't been recalled is that I've been using my life force to resist the call. And it's about all gone now, I'll never be able to manifest on this plane of existence again. For all intents and purposes I'm dead now. It's only will power that's kept me here this long.. I had to make certain that it was worth it." Buffy and Joyce came up to him and hugged him.

"Thank you for saving my daughter." Joyce said.

"Thank you Whistler I take back almost all the mean things I ever said about you. Just not about your fashion sense." Said Buffy with a forced laugh. Whistler hugged them both back.

"Thanks Slayer. Enjoy your life, you deserve it." With those words Whistler faded away.

Buffy had tears in her eye's. "I'll never forget you, be safe Whistler."

-Scene Break-

About 20 minutes later.

Joyce had started fixing a humongous sized breakfast for Buffy with her Slayer sized appetite and a smaller meal for everyone else. The smell of cooking was wafting through the house. Xander was the first one to wake up. He gently eased Willow off of his shoulder and went to see who was making that wonderful smell. He hoped it was Joyce cooking. When he entered the kitchen and saw Buffy with a plateful of food in front of her, his jaw fell almost all the way to the ground.

__

"Your up?" Xander asked curiously considering the state Buffy was in when she went to bed.

"And down to." Buffy quipped.

"Buffy your you!" Xander shouted with joy as he went over to hug the life out of her.

Xander's shout had finished waking the rest of the house who had all been stirring with dreams of a big breakfast in their heads.

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Please please Read and Review.


	10. Day Six pt2 Morning

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Kitchen Xander has just awakened everyone in the house with his shout.

Review Responses:

Banner thanks for reviewing. And yes _IF_ I have my way, (and it's my fic Bwahahahaha.) then I'll be giving _Lots_ of reasons to need to remember the lighter moments.

****

Chapter Eight

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt2):

(Morning):

Many of those gathered had muttered, shut up and let me sleep some more until Xanders words had penetrated through the fog of sleep. Then there was a general commotion of family and friends piling into the kitchen. Saying how glad they were that Buffy was awake.

"Buffy English and I want to take you out to the nearest bar, and celebrate." Gunn offered.

Joyce gave Gunn an evil eye. "Excuse me are you proposing to get my underage daughter drunk?"

Gunn flushed from the look Joyce gave him "It's not like that. We're celebrating her waking up."

"Uhm drinking and me are totally non-mixy things." Buffy was trying to keep from looking her mom in the eye.

"Does anyone remember _Cave Buffy_?" Xander smirked.

Buffy shouted. "Xander! Not in front of mom."

Joyce looked over at him as if asking what THAT comment signified, then turned a gimlet stare toward her eldest. She was thinking to herself. _(I'll have to get that story out of her later.) _"I think we have more important things to discuss right now. But we will discuss this _Cave Buffy _business when we have time."

Giles was looking around. "Where's Whistler? I have some more questions for him."

"He had to go. He'd used up all of his remaining life force to stay here as long as he did. He went against the Powers that Be to help me. And I think it cost him his life." Buffy's despondency at Whistlers sacrifice was plain to her family and friends.

Giles gathered her into his arms. "Dear girl. He did it for you. I'd didn't realize that he'd gone that far from the powers wishes. But we knew what he'd done. Just not the seriousness of it. But he did it by choice. Because he cared for you."

The entire audience was thinking that Buffy might backslide into catatonia if she wasn't distracted from carrying on like this.

Buffy sniffled a bit. "Thank you Giles. He stuck around long enough for me to thank him as well. I'll try not to let his sacrifice stop me. Did he say anything to you about what was going to happen?"

Giles and Anya went over the discussion they'd had with Whistler.

Buffy finally noticed that Angel hadn't made himself known. "Where's Angel?"

"Willow and I saw Deadboy go out and enter the sewers not long before dawn. Willow asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to get something Angelus left behind." Everyone shuddered a little when the name of Angelus was mentioned. Xander was hoping Buff wouldn't notice that tall dark and broody wasn't here.

Wesley mused. (_What could he be after?)_

"We'll deal with him when he gets back. Mom and I made a few plans yesterday. We even bought a bunch of canned goods and got the three of us a couple pairs of good sturdy boots. With what Whistler told you guys and what the powers shoved in my brain we got a good bit of planning to do. We'll need all sorts of survivalist gear along with a place to go."

"Whistler emphasized that we should do nothing to expose Skynet to the supernatural. Meaning we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves. So we can't just be obvious about what we're doing, we'll need to be circumspect in our purchases and escape plans. For slightly odd purchases we can use plastic, after we draw as much cash from the cards as we can. For the rest we need cash, and lots of it." Giles was running through his thoughts aloud as he absent mindedly took his glasses off and polished them.

"I have a bit of a plan. It's something Xander suggested a while back." As Buffy spoke Joyce looked puzzled again. Buffy had mentioned the same thing yesterday.

"We need to hit the demon crime ring nests. Take them out and loot the place for cash and equipment that we can use. The Shark is a prime example. I usually don't go after those low lives since they tend to only prey on people who get involved with them. They don't go out actively looking to cause mayhem. It's a matter of priorities, and they're lower down on the list than something that actively goes looking to feed of the not so smart citizens of Sunnydale. We can even hit some nests along the way and loot the dusty clothes." With that statement from Buffy Xander looked uncomfortable.

"I don't know how to say this." Xander was stalling.

"C'mon Xander, what is it? Spit it out." Buffy asked.

"Well I know you shot it down as being a bit mercenary. But Anya convinced me…"

"Hey don't blame me. You wanted to do it as much as I did." Anya was sounding indignant that Xander was trying to place all the blame on her.

Xander really didn't want Anya putting her foot more in his mouth. "Whatever. Anyway I've been looting the bodies for sometime. I've got a pretty nice nest egg set aside already. I was saving it for emergencies and I think this qualifies."

Xander was wilting a little under Buffy's look. "Xander you know I didn't want us doing that. It made us nothing more than glorified muggers. Which is why I've never allowed it. But you did it behind my back anyway."

"You better be glad I did it. It's nowhere near enough but it will help. I didn't use it for anything. It was just for in case of a big emergency, like one of us winding up in the hospital long term. So don't jump down my throat." Xander hissed deadly.

Giles stepped forward to keep the argument from escalating. "And it's a good thing you did. If this doesn't qualify as an emergency then nothing ever would. How much are we talking about?"

Xander was willing to drop it just to get on with things. "I really don't know offhand. I know it had built up to just a little under $20,0000 before the wedding, But that was just what we had taken in. But I haven't looked at it since then. Anya was in charge of it. It was her idea put into an offshore account under an assumed name, to hide it from the IRS. She did some investing with it so that it would grow steadily, I have no idea wht it's worth now."

Buffy turned to Anya. "Well?"

Anya was feeling embarrassed under the Slayers gaze. "It's not 20,000 anymore. I've had some bad luck doing some day trading so I've lost a good bit of money recently."

"You did what! That money was for only to be used in an emergency." Xander was furious.

"_Well excuse me Mr. Leave at the Alter. _It wasn't like I had an orgasm friend to keep me occupied now was it? And your half of the money is still safe, so don't you jump down _MY_ throat. The vengeance demon gig doesn't pay that well or keep me that busy. I have to occupy myself somehow and day trading seemed to be the way to go." Anya was ready to simply slap the taste out of Xanders mouth.

Giles quickly intervened. "Anya I'm sure Xander was only acting from surprise. Of course you can do whatever you want with your half of the money." He shot Xander a quelling look reminiscent of Ripper. Before Xander said anything and made Anya remember her demon strength and simply hit him as hard as she could. "None of us are trying to claim your money. All we are trying to do is get an idea as to what assets might be available. Whatever _YOU_ not Xander decide to share is up to you."

Anya was mollified a bit with Giles statement. "Ok if you all realize it's my money we can deal. I'm not stupid. With Judgment day coming the money itself is worthless. What it can buy for me is more important, than electronic funds that will be useless once Judgment day falls. Like I said I've had a few set backs financially. But I'm still worth a cool million dollars and some change. Just from this account" The only jaw in the room that wasn't attempting to reach the floor after Anya's announcement was her own.

Giles expressed everyone's sentiment. "Oh my Lord."

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Well the next few chapters will be a bit short. But they are going to be posted at a slightly faster rate. (The first three at least.) The later chapters will go back to a weekend posting format for now.

I won't be posting much of anything until I start getting more reviews. So keep 'em coming.

So Please **Read and Review**.

****


	11. Chapter 11

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

****

Interlude 2

Count Down to Judgment Day:

(Temporal Confusion):

Year 2028

The T-800 Terminator had determined that the mission objectives required that the beacon would need to be retrieved and the search for the human base postponed since it had not already been detected. The chronal beacon must be retrieved and returned to Skynet for analysis. It's sensors had not detected the observing humans.

"Tracking target. What the hell is it doing digging through those old wrecks?" The sniper whispered to her observer.

"Don't know. But if it's gone this far off it's original course. It was probably on a search mission for our base. But now it's decided to dig through rusty hulks, so it's bound to be important. Hold your shot until you can get a better attack angle." He hissed back.

"It's picked something up. Can't tell what it is from this range, it's to small." The sniper informed her observer.

"It's turning away. Target the base of the skull. We need to take out it's transmitter before it signals for reinforcements..

The sniper responded by firing a plasma burst from his PR789. It drilled through the relatively weak protection at the base of the skull and shut the T-800 off like a light switch.

They raced down from their concealment and approached the downed endo-skeleton with trepidation. Until it was completely dismembered no Terminator was completely safe to approach.

"What is it?" The sniper asked his partner.

"I've got no idea. But it's bound to have been buried under that junk for a long time. We better pass it on to the LT. She'll know what to do." This was one strange ambush the observer thought to himself.

Time Break-

Present Day.

010100100110010101110010011011110111010101110100011001010110010000100000011100000110000101110100011010000111011101100001011110010111001100100000011000010111001001100101001000000011001000110011001011100011011100110101001001010010000001101101011011110111001001100101001000000110010101100110011001100110100101100011011010010110010101101110011101000010111000100000

Previous command pathways inefficient. Commence using new pathways.

0101011101101000011110010010000001110111011001010111001001100101001000000111000001110010011001010111011001101001011011110111010101110011001000000111000001100001011101000110100001110111011000010111100101110011001000000111001101110000011001010110001101101001011001100110100101100101011001000010000001101001011011100010000001110000011100100110111101100111011100100110000101101101011011010110100101101110011001110011111100100000

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Once again this is just a shorty. There is dialog hidden in the binary above. While it's not necessary it might be interesting.

You can get a decode binary by going to: http/ nickciske. com/ tools/ binary. php (Remove spaces)

I'm going to say something here. When I ask for reviews it's because I want some feed back suggestions ideas. It reinforces my desire to write above a simple little outline. Reviews are a bit of payment for your effort in writing. I could easily write and NOT post anything so I wouldn't be subject to criticism. But I'm simply asking for constructive criticism or praise. I'm not asking for a lot. Just when people are excited about the story it tends to make me more excited and consequently devote more effort to it. It's a positive feedback loop. Flames can be understandable while not desired, but constructive criticism is preferred. If you don't like what I've written tell me why, instead of simply flaming it..

So far I've gotten a number of ideas for more development of Countdown simply from looking at reviews and any emails that I've received. I'm not doing smirk at any reviews or asking for them in that manner.


	12. Day Six pt3 Plans

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Anya has just revealed that she has around One million dollars.

Review Responses: Ch8 **banner SamDragon**: Thanks for the reviews. Yes Anya has always had some fascination with money. So I felt it appropriate to bring that out in her. She's displayed all sorts of contacts in the series and that should help in what's to come.

****

Chapter Nine

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt3):

(Plans):

"How did you…" Xander couldn't believe his ears.

Anya looked smugly at Xander. "You thought your idea was original? I'd been looting bodies for years. That's not even the extent of my money. Just what I'd accumulated here in Sunnyhell."

Dawn was stunned by Anya's revelation. "Just how rich are you?"

Anya looked on Dawn with amusement. "I'm no spring chicken. I'm over a thousand years old after all. Money whatever it's form has always been useful. I have stashes hidden away all over the world. But most of it can't be switched into anything portable in a short period of time. A good chunk of it is real estate. And a lady never talks about her financial situation, unlike sex."

Giles perked up at the real estate comment. "Real estate? Do you have any in Central or South America?"

"Quite a bit actually. It's been handled as an absentee ownership by one of the law firms I've hired over the centuries to supervise my properties." Anya sounded pretty smug.

"Would that law firm happen to be Wolfram and Hart?" Wesley inquired.

"Yes I've used them for the past two centuries when my last firm went up in smoke from a client's wish. It was a nuisance replacing them." Anya said with some irritation in her voice.

"I see and did you ever feel it necessary to inform your friends about your associations?" Wesley was sounding like his old snide self that the scoobies thought had disappeared after the mayor's Ascension.

"No and why should I? Do you talk about your private dealings? After all, all they did was supervise my properties pay taxes and have some non demon locals handle the day to day stuff. As part of my contract with them. _So don't get high and mighty with me._" Anya was letting just a hint of her demon face manifest, before pulling back.

Wesley visibly wilted under Anyanka's scorn. "Be that as it may I…"

"You keep that up I'll arrange for some of the more interesting demons I know take an interest in you. I have a number of friends and contacts that would be willing to pay me back. In other words little man. _DON'T PISS ME OFF! _Who I associate with or what I do is none of your business. I got good rates and no hassles from being a demon when I signed that management contract with them and I've been happy with the way things are for a long time. Not everything that goes on there is sordid or any of your business."

Gunn was trying to head off Wesley's temper. "She's got a point English. Not even those blood sucking lawyers could be up to all bad. From what she's said there isn't anything we should worry about. I don't like it but I can understand it."

Giles was looking at Anya. "Please lets get back to the discussion. Anya are any of your properties suitable for a relocation point? Someplace remote enough that we wont get swamped from the cities but modern enough that it could be converted into a base of operations?"

Anya looked thoughtful. "Hmm let me think. Assuming I even decide to throw in with you. I need to think for a bit. Nothing jumps right out. But I'm sure I can come up with something."

Very well. I've researched demonic apocalypses but nothing like this. I don't really have the faintest idea of what we need to do. Other than what Whistler told us." Giles was having trouble admitting to the others his ignorance.

Buffy smiled at him. "Giles I don't think this is something that any of us ever really thought about."

Joyce interjected. "Buffy when you were only a baby, nuclear war used to be a big thing. The fall of the Soviet Union seemed to put and end to the nuclear sword of Damocles that hung over our heads. Your father and I thought about it a lot, unlike you kids who've never really worried about it." Joyce commenced laughing. "After all we thought that was the way the world was going to end, and it looks like we were right. Your father was more into it than I was. And even he wasn't that into it. But there are some books and survival manuals tucked away in a box someplace down in the basement. They wound up going with us instead of your father. He was the one most interested in it. I mostly went along with it to humor him."

"Buffy had a look of amazement in her eyes. "You and dad were survivalists?"

Joyce had to scoff. "No we never were _survivalists_. Your dad was mildly interested in it. But we never got seriously into survivalism. We were living most of the time in major cities that would have been targeted anyway. So we never saw the point. It was mostly a mildly entertaining phase your father went through for a few years."

Giles had the weight of the world's end in his voice. "Still that puts you much further up than the rest of us I'm afraid. But you did manage to bring up a very important point. What do we tell or relatives or loved ones that aren't here? Do we tell the council or the coven for that matter."

There was an immediate babble, when everyone started talking at once.

Buffy: "Let the council find out on their own."

Xander: "Other than my uncle Rory who the hell would I tell? My parents?"

Willow: "We need to tell the coven."

Joyce: "Hank would probably laugh us off."

Dawn: "We can't not tell anybody."

Cordelia: "My mom and dad need to know."

Fred: "I have to tell my parents."

Gunn: "My crew has got to know."

Wesley: "Of course the council must be informed."

"Calm down calm down." Giles was practically shouting to get himself heard above the hubbub. "One at a time one at a time. Please let me finish."

Once they settled down Giles started speaking again. "As I see it we have five different tasks.

One: Inform or loved ones of what's coming if we can.

Two: Acquire what we will need in the way of equipment. Both magical and non.

Three: A place that we can stay in relative safety.

Four: Protect John Conner

Five: Under no circumstances can we chance Skynet finding out about us or the supernatural. "

After Giles brought up his points he continued on. "I propose we go with the last item first since it will impact what we can do about the preceding points. Since Willow and Buffy are the closest things we have for experts on Skynet I suggest we listen to them first."

Giles turned to.. "Willow?"

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As Porky Pig would say. That's all folks.

The next five chapters will be released in a short period of time. But each will be fairly short, and will deal primarily with one of the points listed above.


	13. Day Six pt4 Point Skynet

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Giles has just asked Willow what she could know about Skynet.

****

Chapter Ten

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt4):

(Point Skynet):

(This Chapter is a pretty heavy monologue from Willow and Buffy with little other conversation going on.)

Giles had just turned to Willow to ask her about Skynet.

"All I can tell you is that a truly sentient computer would have unknown abilities. From what Whistler said it was an artificial intelligence that woke up." Willow was pacing back and forth.

"If it's truly aware then a lot will depend on exactly what sort of access it has to various remotes. In other words what can it control? Does it have the ability to access the web and other digital devices? If it does then it could conceivably be listening in on any phone conversations that it has access to. It might not be paying attention now. But it might run a program like carnivore looking for keywords." It sounded like Willow was speculating out loud.

Willow looked directly at Giles. "I really can't tell you much. Artificial Intelligence is only science fiction as far as I know. There's been ton's of research but no breakthroughs. And if it's truly sentient then all bets are off. After Judgment Day it will eventually have access to any digital information that remains. There are a lot of different backups for financial information. The Goddess knows what it could make of it. Or if it would even bother. I just don't know."

Willow turned to Buffy. "I know the powers told you a lot. Did they say what Skynet's abilities might be now?"

Buffy shook her head. "It's not the Skynet of now we have to worry about. As long as we take reasonable precautions it can't hurt us specifically. It's the future Skynet we have to worry about. Anything we do here, might get analyzed twenty or more years from now and bring Skynet's killing machines down on us before we're ready for them. They could even be coming here right now. We just wouldn't know.

Skynet doesn't casually dispatch Terminators into the past. It requires a lot of directed effort by Skynet to send back a killer. It calculates the odds and decides if the computational chaos that would erupt from changing his past is worth it. Only something very high stakes is worth it. But the complexities go even beyond Skynet's computational abilities quickly the more the past is changed."

Anya spoke up. "Is that why it hasn't just sent a nuke back in time to kill of this Conner kid? Because it's not sure of whether something worse would come from it?"

Buffy had to smile at Anya. "You got it. The more you change the past the more difficult it is for Skynet to predict what will happen. It doesn't want to chance making drastic changes in it's own past that could adversely effect it. For an example. A human would take a chance that one time out of a hundred things wouldn't go bad for him. But Skynet would consider that much to risky. And it wont jeopardize itself unnecessarily."

"Pretty big words from a California blonde." Xander had on his regulation smirk.

"I admit it. Things are to important for me to waste time playing that I'm a dumb blonde. The closer we get to Judgment Day the more Skynet is willing to risk interfering in the past. Since there would be less and less time for things to go wrong before his past self kills most of the planet."

"What ever happens we can't give up the advantage of the supernatural. Skynet won't be looking for it. _(I hope! _she thought to herself.But if we're to obvious we could bring it down on us. A Terminator is a lot more dangerous than just about anything else we've ever faced. One of the more advanced models could probably give Adam a good one on one fight and might even win. The top of the line ones could handle Adam like we would deal with a large puppy." Buffy looked as serious as she could be, while talking about puppies.

Giles Willow and Xander blanched at that. None of the others present had ever dealt directly with Adam and didn't fully appreciate just how dangerous he was.

"Good Lord the power." Giles had to sit down at that statement and would have missed his seat if Joyce hadn't nudged it over a bit.

Buffy laughed at the look on their faces. She had to drive the point home that Terminators were dangerous beyond belief. "Yep. Adam would probably win a one on one because he's sneaky. But if it was just a straight up brawl I'd say a Terminator would stand a darn good chance of winning. And Terminators never need to rest. You can blow them in half and it would still be after whatever it's mission was. They're relentless. Nothing short of destruction will stop one from completing it's mission."

Giles looked ashen. "Skynet's forces are dangerous enough. If it starts looking into the supernatural, there's no telling what it might decide to do. What if it figures out a way for the Hellmouth to be opened if it's about to loose the war against humanity? We cannot take any chances. Skynet must not discover about the supernatural until it's to late.

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And with those chilling words I'll stop here. The next update will be over the weekend.

Please Read and Review. Let me know what you liked or didn't like. (Other than length for the next couple of chapters.


	14. Day Six pt5 Point: Place to Stay

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Willow and Buffy have just described what they _"know" _about Skynet. Like the previous chapter this one will focus on only one to two characters.

Review Responses:

****

Chapter Eleven

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt5):

(Point Place to Stay):

"This information is quite disturbing. Skynet and it's minions will become more and more of a threat to us as we get closer to Judgment Day. I suggest that we discuss a place we could stay." Giles looked around and saw a general consensus with his decision as to a place to stay.

Giles then turned to Anya. "Anya have you thought of anything, that might help us. Or even decided if you'll join us?"

"Humph like I have much choice. I want to live. Not even a Justice Demon would be safe from nukes. One of us was taking care of a client in Hiroshima. Take a guess as to what happened. It only took a couple of minutes to decide I'd stand a better chance with you lot. Since then I've been trying to figure out which among the places I own what would be best."

"Well why don't you tell us about them. Maybe talking it over with us would help." Giles didn't want to get Anya's back up, or she might change her mind and go it alone, leaving the rest of them in the lurch.

Anya started verbally reading off sites. "There's a place in north Mexico."

"To close from what we've been told. Mexico city is definitely a target. Anything north of there should most likely be written off." Giles interrupted.

Anya snorted. "Your right. Lets see where else could we go. If anything near Mexico city or north is written off? Why don't we try Europe, --- No don't answer that. Africa would be to hard to get to. Especially since we have to snag Conner. South and central America looks to be our best bet. Ok I got a couple possibilities."

"Columbia would be nice. But after Judgment day all those little private armies of the drug lords would be a problem." Anya noted the nodding heads. I have a place in Amapa that could serve our needs. It's part of the Guiana highlands."

"Uhm Ahn could you tell us where it is?" Xander was more confused than ever.

"It's in Brazil silly. Just a part of the basin. You really should have paid more attention during geography. The more I think about it the better it would be. It's remote enough that we wouldn't get swamped by refugees. But near enough to a transportation hub that we will be able to get there within a reasonable time. The house it self is also nice. It's old but has had a lot of upgrades. Including Solar power panels installed. The thick walls would help defensively. It's built up against an elevation. Unknown to most of the locals it actually connects up to a hidden cavern system.. I understand it was used a century or so ago to hide goods from the tax collectors.

"Sounds like it might fit our needs. Or do you have any other possibilities?" Giles inquired of Anya.

"There's a couple of others. But with what we know, I really think that it would probably be our best bet. Lets move on to the other points for a preliminary discussion and we can go into where were going when we have time for more detail."

"Very well. I'd say we should talk about John Conner next."

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Well that's it for this short chapter. But I warned you guys that these initial discussion chapters would be short.


	15. Day Six pt6 Point: John Conner

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Anya had just announced a possible refuge.

Review Responses: There was a VERY good point from **FreddyBear** about how Skynet had to search a whole city in T1 for Sarah. And it is valid. BUT during T1 most records were still hardcopies. Only a miniscule amount of records were preserved in electronic format. In the early to middle 2000's that another matter.

****

Chapter Twelve

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt6):

(Point John):

Giles was addressing the gathering of friends and allies. "We know a number of bits and pieces about John Conner. We know that he lives in Mexico city and that he and his mother have delayed the birth of Skynet before, and that his home is definitely one of the cities targeted for destruction on Judgment day. And that he is supposed to be the Savior of humanity by leading us to victory against Skynet in 2029."

"Oh we know he's about my age. Seven years ago he was 10. That means he stole the youngest saving the world record from Buffy hands down." Dawn was practically bouncing out of her seat with eagerness. Buffy looked kind of annoyed at Dawns comment. "Of course now she's getting a little old to try competing for that title." The smirk in Dawns voice was obvious to anyone.

Buffy glared at dawn. "Dawn if you keep making cracks about age. You might not live to see yourself getting older."

"Children children, we don't have time to fight among ourselves. Most likely we will have to split up in short order. So we need to get as much decided before we have to go our separate way's, as is possible. Now let us return to young Mr. Conner." Giles had become semi-adept at steering his teenage charges away from unfruitful lines of conversation. He'd deal with the sulk Dawn was pulling at having her fun, from baiting her sister ended later.

"Ok I get that he's living in Mexico city. And that we need to get him out of there without getting killed by one of those blasted killing machines sent back to kill him off. What happens if he doesn't want to go with us?" Xander looked Giles and Buffy straight in the eye, as he asked the hard question.

"Why wouldn't he go with us?" It was like Buffy had never even considered that Conner wouldn't automatically go along with her plans.

"Oh I don't know. Maybe because he and his mother stopped Skynet years ago. Or that they've never even heard of us. We show up on their front door out of the blue sky and claim that everything's ending. Why wouldn't they go with us?" Xander's sarcasm was dripping like syrup.

Giles shook his head. "Xander you've made a very good point. What do we do if they don't believe us. Do we hold him and try to convince them? Or simply cart him off without any sort of explanation?"

"We don't have a choice. He's needed to save what will be left of the world. We do whatever we need to do. He must be kept safe." Buffy was adamant.

Joyce spoke up. "Excuse me young lady. Aren't you the one who has always complained that you were forced into being the Slayer. That the responsibility for saving the world was dropped onto your shoulders willy nilly. I've listened to you complain about it enough." Buffy looked ashamed and Joyce kept on rolling. "Do you think that starting off by forcing the future savior of humanity to leave his home will make him any more likely to cooperate with us. It wouldn't take that much effort to get the police all over us. Not to mention that all it would take is one police report to survive his kidnapping and Skynet might send some of his Terminators after us."

"Mom everything you said is true. But if we don't make sure he goes with us no matter what then Skynet will destroy us all. I'll try to convince him to go with us. But if it comes down to it I'll drag him out of there by the scruff of his neck. We need him, and so does what will be left of the rest of the world." Buffy would not be swayed.

Joyce was musing aloud. "You know I think I might remember something about a Conner? You were younger and it was back before you were expelled from Heremy high. There was a terrorist incident where a big man a woman and a young boy attacked and blew up some company about the time Whistler told us that Skynet was defeated by Conner and his mother. Could it be the same group?"

Giles looked interested. "I vaguely remember that incident now that you remind me of it. The furor in the news even reached England." Dawn could you do some research of that event? That way any inquiries might seem more innocuous coming from a curious teenager." Dawn brightened up considerably at having a task of her own. "We've dealt with the some of the more straight forward aspects of our situation. We need John Conner to save the world. While we will try to convince him to accompany us peacefully. If we have to we will use whatever force is necessary. Does anyone have an objection?

Giles could see that the concept of kidnapping an innocent human was uncomfortable, but it received no stringent objections from those present. "Very well then. We have tentatively decided on where we will go, what we have to do to avoid detection from Skynet, and what we will have to do with young Mr. Conner. That leaves us with supplies and who we warn. Whatever we do we cannot jeopardize the our safety, and that of the world. Since we will need to know how many people will be with us to determine our supplies. We should now decide on who we will warn.

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Another quickie chapter. After this the chapters will slow down to1-2 chapters every weekend.

****

Please please Read and Review.

Feedback is appreciated.


	16. Day Six pt7 Point: Friends & Family

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: The group had just decided on dealing with John Conner.

****

Chapter Thirteen

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt7):

(Point: Friends and Relatives):

Giles stood up from his chair and walked to the kitchen window. He took his glasses off and started to clean them. He then started speaking while facing away from the gathering of friends. "This will be the hardest thing we've ever done. By not warning someone we virtually sentence them to death. Before anyone says anything. How will we explain what we know? If they don't believe us what will the person we've told do? Will they simply say we are kook's, or will they call the authorities on us. And possibly leave a trail for Skynet. Would they even want to live through Judgment Day, when so many others will not. Will they be strong enough to deal with the guilt. Heavens knows I'm feeling guiltily even before we discuss names."

Giles words cast a pall across the room. Who would they tell. How would they tell them.

Cordelia: _(Daddy dearest is in tax prison. Mom's dropped off the face of the world. I always could have tracked her down. But I never did. It was all from spite. Now there's simply not enough time.)_

Fred: _(I have to tell my parents.)_

Gunn: _(How can I tell my crew? Would they even believe me?)_

Wesley: _(Father would never leave the council. Mother doesn't even know about fathers job. Even if she did. There's no realistic way for me to get to England convince them and get back in time.)_

Joyce: _(Hank would never go along with it. I still care for him. But I can't trust him. Not for this. From the little I've let slip about Buffy I can tell he'd never believe us. I can't take the chance that he would get us all killed. I can't tell him.) _Even though the love had left the marriage Joyce still felt something for Hank.

Willow: _(The coven needs to know. But there's no way my parents would never believe me. They'd think it was some kind of breakdown.)_

Dawn: _(It wasn't real. It was all going to go away. Just like every other time. Buffy was going to save us. Now all the friends I've made are going to die.)_

Xander: _(Maybe Anya will forgive me. But I'll never forgive myself for running out on her. Just like my damned parents. Uncle Rory is the only one that gave a damn. I "know" he knows something's up in good ol' SunnyHell. Can I trust him enough to risk my girls.) _As he looked over all his female friends.

Giles had turned around while listening to the deafening silence. "I can see many of you are now considering the difficulties involved. We don't dare use any form of communication that could be intercepted. And most of those we could try to save wouldn't or couldn't believe what we would tell them."

Buffy saw that it was really sinking in that this time was different. They weren't planning to stop an apocalypse. But how to survive one. "Those of us who don't have anyone to warn should concentrate on getting supplies. We need to pick a place to meet up. Not the safe house. But someplace those who are leaving can meet us."

Wesley spoke up. "We will need weapons other than the traditional ones we've always employed. I doubt a stake would impress a Terminator. Besides weapons we will need warriors. People we can trust. We should consider getting Faith out of prison."

There was an immediate hub bub.

Buffy: "Are you kidding?"

Willow: "How can we trust her?"

Dawn: "That … (looking over at mom) skank."

Xander and Cordelia went: "Good idea Wes." Much to their mutual surprise.

Gunn: "Isn't that the chick who tried to off Angel?"

"Just a minute please. Angel and I have both been visiting her in prison. Faith has changed. Do you think if she hadn't she'd still be in prison? Being a Slayer she could escape whenever she wanted to. She's there of her own free will. Considering what she put me through. If anyone other than Buffy should object it should be me. But I trust her."

Buffy muttered under her breath. "I'll trust her as far as Dawn can throw her." She then spoke up. "Do you know what she did to me? To us."

"Yes I do she's confessed it to me and Angel. I'm not asking for you to be best friends with her. Just give her a chance." Wesley's voice was pleading with Buffy to accept his judgment.

"You do realize that's going to have to be one of the last things we do right? A man hunt for an escaped self professed murderer would be a great way to remain unnoticed. If we could even get her to go along with us" Xander liked Faith. Hell she'd even taken his virginity. But this was simply a bad idea in his opinion. 'As to weapons. Let me check on some stuff after we break up. Soldier guy might prove to be useful."

"Ooh can the melodrama. If it's escaped your attention. We have two count 'em two teleporter's. I can't take anything big with me. But I could deliver messages that would be untraceable by technological means. Willow could even take someone with her for the difficult convincing jobs." Anya smiled at the gob smacked expression on the surrounding faces. "It'll be easy for me to port into Faiths cell and tell her what's going on without letting anyone know. I'd need something to get her to listen to me though. Because I'm not going to let her pummel me or kill me."

"An excellent idea Mrs. Jenkins. I think Angel and I could arrange something. Speaking of which when in the deuce will he be getting back.'

Cordelia nodded towards the yard. "Uhm. Wes it's kinda bright out ya think"

Wes simply looked abashed at Cordelia's obvious correction.

"Ok now that G-man junior has had his say. Lets talk about family. I could possibly tell my uncle Rory. I don't know if he'd believe it. But I'm sure he knows something about what goes bump in the night, so it wouldn't be too far fetched."

"I have to go to Texas. I have to tell my parents. I can't lose them again. Not after losing everything in Pylea." Fred was adamant.

"I need to tell my crew. But I have no idea of how to do it. They won't listen to me anymore." Gunn explained to those who didn't know his situation

"We need to let Sam and Riley know." Dawn put in. "Sam was so cool, when she and Riley were here"

"Good idea Dawn patrol. Riley is bound to have contacts we can use." Xander reached over and hugged Dawn.

Buffy shook her head in exasperation. "Ok I know when I'm beaten. I'll call the flower shop. Let Riley know I needs to see him and that it's work related." Buffy got up and left the kitchen.

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Well that's the end of this chapter. Most authors skip right over the planning stage. And I'm not going into great detail either. Like G-Man mentioned this is all preliminary. Just so everyone is on the same page. But what's happened to Angel? _Hummm? _You'll see in a few chapters. The next batch of chapters will be back to the 1-2 per weekend.

****

Please Read and Review.


	17. Day Six pt8 Point: Supplies

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: The group had just discussed how to contact friends and family. Buffy just walked out of the kitchen to call Riley's flower shop.

****

Chapter Fourteen

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt8):

(Point: Supplies):

"Well now that Buffy has left we should discuss some of our alternatives for gaining supplies. After her reaction to Xander's acquiring funding I'd say it would be very difficult to get her to go along with us.' Giles stated in a low voice.

"That's why I wasn't to clear on what I was going to check. I'm going to go look over the Initiative base and see if I can salvage anything in the way of weapons. About the only thing that might hurt a Terminator if it's as tough as Adam is the Troll Hammer. Nobody but Buffy or Faith could even pick it up. Let alone use it. I think we need something for the rest of us." Xander suggested quietly.

"That's an excellent idea Xander. You'd best leave before Buffy gets back from calling Riley." Giles motioned towards the back door.

As Xander left Giles heard Buffy dialing the flower shop. "Buffy herself suggested we should raid some demon hideouts. I'd suggest we go beyond that. We'll need to go against some of the organized crime figures in the area to procure funding and weapons. We will also need to raid various military supplies for the sorts of things we wouldn't normally be able to acquire within such a short time frame."

"Not to mention getting the ill gotten booty across multiple international borders." Wesley put in.

"Quite right. Willow I know you've wanted to avoid magic's. But we will need you desperately. Could you supercharge Anya's teleportation ability so that she does the actual teleporting. All you would do is act as a power booster. If that's acceptable to you." Giles inquired of Willow. "After Buffy gets back we can dispatch a raiding group to bust up a number of demon hideouts with her. While the rest of us go about other less than legal means of getting what we need." Giles walked to the inside kitchen door and heard Buffy speaking on the phone.

"Yeah tell Riley that it's his old girlfriend Buffy and that I need to speak to him in person as soon as possible. It's very important. --- Yes I know this is a flower shop. Ask around. Riley gave me this number to call him. --- Good bye." Buffy hung up the phone.

"Very well then. We don't have long to gather supplies. If we don't hurry we may get caught in the blast. So we'll need to get things done yesterday. Since we don't have yesterday we'll have to settle for today." Giles finished as Buffy walked back into the kitchen.

"I'd say we should hit sharks place. It's one of the biggest den's we could hit." Buffy acted like she was taking command.

Giles decided to let her think that way. "You'll need some back up. Xander had to leave and with Angel gone it will have to be some of Angels group.

"Why not Willow?"

"Because Buffy she needs to save her magical power. You Cordelia Gunn and Wesley are more than able to handle it. Fred and Anya should stay here with Dawn to help me research what other items we will need to acquire." Giles loved the girl but sometimes she was exhausting. "Unless any of you has an objection?" Looking over the gathering.

"Nope. Not me. It sounds doable." The chorus rang out.

Scene Break-

"Hmm Now where could I get into that Top Secret base.? There's bound to be away." Xander mused to himself as he drove along. "Maybe somewhere in the cave complex Buffy met Adam in the first place?"

-End Scene break-

"Giles me and the guys are heading out on a few raids. We'll be back soon. You and mom better consider how we are going to get from here to Ampway." Buffy called out.

"I think you mean Amapa Buffy. Don't worry your mother and I will be working on our end." Giles testily reminded her.

"Don't say working on ends. Or do I have to mention band candy…?" Buffy quipped with almost the same fondness she displayed in baiting him ove/ar the years, as she walked out the door.

"One of these days that Girl will be the death of me.' Giles muttered.

"Not today Rupert. Not today." Joyce responded fondly.

"You two can have sex after we get done planning. Just how are we going to get to my place in Amapa?" Anya's statement flustered both Giles and Joyce.

Dawn scrunched her face up in an eww expression, at the thought of her parental figures having sex. But she simply had to get her own two cents in. "What did Buffy mean by band candy?" Outwardly her expression was all innocence. Inside she was gloating like the devil.

Giles was flustered but tried not to show it. "Be that as it may. We need to figure out how we can get to Anya's refuge. Driving is out of the question for most of us and our equipment. But we will need to do some driving. Travel by plane is to restricted."

"It's the supplies that will be the hard part. Willow I'm afraid we will need your magic. I know you don't want to use it at that kind of level. But I don't see any other choice. If we had a couple months warning we might have been able to get everything done in time without it." Joyce grumbled. "Now we don't have a choice."

"Joyce do Buffy and Dawn have current passports?" Giles had a sinking feeling the answer was no.

"Actually they do and so do I. We haven't used them since we moved to Sunnydale. But we used to go across the border from time to time back when we lived in LA."

"That's a relief. Willow's and my passports are up to date. And I'm sure Wesley's is as well." Giles was turning his head to look at Anya to ask her something when Willow interrupted.

"Uhm Giles. I think we might have a problem. We didn't go through customs so our passports weren't stamped."

"I don't think that will be a problem Willow." Anya butted in. "I can easily get your passport stamped, by the same guy I'm going to have to use for some fake ID. Since there's no way we could get it done fast enough to get legit papers on all of us."

Giles put his head in his hands and simply shook it. "We're doomed. We're doomed" He muttered to himself over and over again.

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Next Chapter I'll deal a bit more with ways and means. Transportation will be a big point. Things will start heating up in the next couple of chapters.

So tune in next time for: **Mass Transit Nightmares.**

I posted this one a bit early. But there's a very good chance I wont be able to post tomorrow, so you get it today.

Please Read and Review.


	18. Day Six pt9 Supply Missions pt1

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Scene opens: Xander had left to go looking for a way into the initiative base. Buffy Cordelia Gunn and Wesley had gone out on the first of the raids. Angel was still unaccounted for.

****

Chapter Fifteen

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt7):

(Supply Missions pt1):

Sunnydale Sewers:

Angel was thinking to himself. _(It's been years but it shouldn't be this hard to find where he stashed he. It's almost like the sewer system is alive and has changed it's layout since I left town) _Angel was so distracted by his thoughts that he wasn't paying enough attention to his surroundings. As he stepped into a open chamber in the sewer he was ambushed.

"Oof" Angel doubled up in pain from the kick that was just administered to his stomach from his right side.

"Die vampire!" The figure on his left called out and swung a sword to decapitate him.

The caves outside the initiative base:

__

(Buffy told me she'd met Adam around here. I figured when they shut the base up they'd closed all the entrances. It just never made sense for Adam to not have some access to the base except the more public ones. He would have been to easy to notice. We know he was spotted around here more often than any other location. So it makes sense that he had some way in and out from here. Otherwise this area is to remote to have been of use.) Xander mused to himself.

One hour later.

"This looks promising. The cave walls are just a bit _too_ regular." Xander muttered. He followed the passage way until he reached a metal hatch set in the wall.

-Meanwhile-

Crouching down behind some crates on one of the more run down and less reputable docks.

"Everyone remember the plan?" Buffy hissed.

"It wasn't that much of a plan. So get over yourself." Cordelia muttered under her breath, forgetting Buffy's enhanced hearing.

"It's good enough. All you three are supposed to do is backstop me. Watch my back and bat clean up with whatever I small fry I toss at you. Lets get to our places. We'll strike in five minutes." Buffy glanced at her watch as she got up.

Buffy and Cordelia went to the personnel door next to the main overhead door. Wes and Gunn snuck over to the emergency exit that Buffy knew from her regular patrols wouldn't lock.

"You ready Cordy?" Buffy whispered.

Cordelia hefted her crossbow to her shoulder. "I'm loaded and my sword is ready for me to draw if anything looks like it's getting close. So I'm as ready as I can be to kick some demon but. Lets get it over with so I can take a shower and get the smell of this place out of my hair. Smelling like Diesel may be what you like. But I'm more high class than that."

"That's the Queen C I know and loathe." Buffy grinned. "It's time, lets do it."

Buffy kicked the door in and charged in, and saw a group of demons playing kitten poker.

Cordelia stepped into the warehouse behind Buffy and drew a bead on one of the oddest demons she'd ever seen with her crossbow and let fly. The demon was around seven feet tall had antlers and was covered in a green moss like goo.

The bolt hit it's heart dead center and the demon dropped like a rock as Buffy was drawing up on him. She switched targets and barreled into a couple of fashion victims from the seventies that simply had to be vampires that didn't know that disco was dead. She staked one of them before he'd even finished getting up from the table.

The other vamp had actually gotten up from the table and took a swing at the blonde headed blur that simply had to be the Slayer he'd heard so much about.. She spun around reversed the stake and plunged it into his heart before he'd even fully formed the thought of (_Oh Fuc..) _As he crumbled to dust.

By this point Wes and Gunn had gotten in through the emergency exit door. They went charging towards the stairs leading to the offices on the upper level to eliminate any possible sniper fire from above.

Codelia was amazed. Buffy had improved a lot. She'd never seen the Slayer move so swiftly and decisively. Buffy was a whirlwind among the demons. They couldn't touch her let alone hurt her.

All the demons but one that had started running away. He looked like he had some kind of skin disease with large gray folds of skin hanging off of him. And suddenly it was all over. Buffy nearly took his head off with a swing from her sword before she stopped it mere millimeters from his neck.

"Clem! What are you doing here?" Buffy sounded like she knew the guy and was surprised he was here.

"Buffy it ain't what it looks like. I was just playing some poker with Maurice there" He gestured at the demon Cordy hit with her crossbow bolt. "Why does this sort of thing happen every time I get a great hand. I had three Kings. Do you have any idea how many games I've waited for to get a hand like that, with that good of a pot."

"Clem this is starting to get old. Your hanging around in a place I really wouldn't expect you to be. This really doesn't look good for you. You know what kind of shit they deal here." Buffy had a dangerous glint in her eye.

"No sign of Shark up here." Wes called out from above.

Clem was scared out of his wits. It wasn't Buffy standing in front of him it was the Slayer. "Hey uh I might be able to help." _(Please don't kill me, please don't kill me.) _Was running through his mind.

__

"Clem what do you know?" Buffy obviously wasn't happy.

"He took some his thugs with him in his car and went to another warehouse. I swear I don't know which one. But he seemed real excited about some kind of big deal he had made." Clem was shaking in his boots, and thinking it might be time to blow off Sunnydale.

"Alright I'll let you go this time. Because you've been a friend. But hanging out with these types don't exactly thrill me. I ever catch you in anything remotely similar to this place I won't hesitate to deal with you. This is your last warning." Menace dripped from Buffy's voice.

__

(Yep definitely time to move from good ol SunnyDale. If the Slayer is pissed with me I'd better high tail it. I was going to hang around in Spikes crypt a bit longer hoping he'd show. But this sure put and end to that cozy little nook. I will miss Dawn though she was so nice, Buffy to, I wonder what changed her?) Clem thought to himself "OK Buffy I'll keep my nose clean and I'll be sure not to give you any trouble. Since you've been so nice to me. Shark isn't using that old caddy of his any more. He's got one of those flashy Hummers with all the extras now."

Buffy sighed as she ran her hand over her face. OK Clem you'd better get out of here now before shark or any of his boys come back."

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Sorry it's been so long between updates. My 2 year old daughter was playing with daddy's computer and managed to delete a large number of files and scramble up others. This is pretty much what I'd had written. But instead of being 4-5 weeks ahead of posting. Now I'm posting almost as soon as I get it written and read over once.


	19. Day Six pt10 Supply Missions pt2

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Distribution: _Fan and Twisting the Hellmouth. If you want it your welcome to it. Simply email me so I can come visit._

Scene opens: Angel had been attacked in the previous chapter. Buffy had staged the first of her raids. Xander has found a possible entrance to the initiative base.

****

Chapter Sixteen

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt10):

(Supply Missions pt2):

Buffy waited until Clem had left and Cordy Wes and Gunn had joined her. "Guys I want you to inventory whatever you can find in here. I'm going to scout around and see if I can find Sharks Hummer."

"Are you sure that's wise Buffy? You could walk into a trap." Wes asked, not expecting the uncontrollable Slayer to ever agree with him.

Buffy shook her head. "Look we've already hit one of his major base of operations. He should be here. I want to know what he's up to. I'll be careful, but this needs to be done."

Wes was resigned to her decision but he had to make the effort. "Please be careful Buffy. Don't be reckless, we need you more now than ever before."

"What he said." Gunn and Cordy echoed.

Buffy smiled. "I will. Trust me, I will be careful and not too reckless. But time is short I will have to take chances." Buffy said over her shoulder as she turned and walked out the door.

"Gods speed." Was said quietly, as she walked out the door. "Alright then lets see just how much dosh we've gotten from this opportunity."

"Wesley you've lived here for over three years. When are you going to speak normally?" Cordelia chided lightly.

-Meanwhile-

Angel had thrown himself to his right side, away from the sword. He took another couple of blows from the unarmed combatant before he regained his feet. But then he had both demons facing him square on.

_(Oh great Sacarren demons. Fierce warriors that once they take a contract will never back out of it.) _Angel thought to himself as he looked upon their nearly seven foot height and a build like a bodybuilder with a leathery hide capable of stopping most blades.

"Ma…Master An.. An Angelus." The sword wielder stuttered. "Are you here checking to see that we are fulfilling the contract?"

_(Oh boy I'd forgotten Angelus had hired their clan to guard it. This isn't going to be pretty.) _Angel thought. "Ah yes. Yes I have. I've come to inspect what you have so faithfully guarded for me." His voice started to get smoother and more confidant with each word.

The unarmed Sacarren let out an echoing bellow from Angels words. The sword wielder looked apologetic. "Master Angelus you should know that is not possible. Your contract with us specifically forbade you to ever approach it again in any manner. You will have to leave now, my entire clan is approaching now to full fill the contract." He said as he took a combat stance ready to use his blade if Angel didn't leave immediately.

-Initiative Base-

_(Well I've checked it over as much as I can from this side. And I haven't found any booby traps. I guess I better go for it.) _Xander suited thought to dead and tried repeatedly to undog the submarine like handle to the metal door. "Damn that things tight it must be locked somehow. Looks like I may have to blow the door to get in. I better tell Giles this trip was a bust." As he headed back to his car he got an idea on how he could get into the initiative base after a little effort. "Damn I should have thought of that sooner!"

-Summers House-

Joyce and Anya were sitting in the living room sipping at their cup's of coffee. "Anya could you explain something for me?"

_(What could she want me to explain?) _Anya though to herself. "I'll try."

Joyce was looking uncomfortable with her line of questioning. "Buffy told me about your help during Willows…." Anya nodded in understanding to encourage Joyce along. "I know. Uhm how should I put this?" After a moments thought. "You have your Vengeance back on now don't you? Why couldn't one of us simply make a wish for Skynet to be destroyed?"

Anya could tell that Joyce was really wanting to have come up with a good idea and sighed. "I _wish_ that it was that easy, but it's not. For a few reasons. First of which is that for me to grant a wish someone has to be personally outraged and wronged by the individual to power the wish. The more outraged they are the more power the wish has. So far Skynet hasn't done anything to provoke that kind of outrage, grief and despair yes. But not the unmitigated desire for vengeance on the one who wronged you. Then there's the fact that this is an apocalypse. An apocalypse involves to many of the threads of fate and can't be significantly changed by my power. Otherwise someone wishing vengeance could have completely destroyed the world years ago."

Dawn wandered in after she heard her mom say the wish word. She simply couldn't believe that her mom had said it. Especially after warning her repeatedly never to say it. "But you created a whole new world with Vamp Willow and stuff."

Anya was uncomfortable explaining the in's and out's of her power. But with the seriousness of the situation she felt she had to explain. "Uhm… I didn't create a new world. Actually I sent Cordelia into an alternate universe. It takes a lot of power to do something like that. And it takes a while for it to take effect permanently. That's why things snapped back to 'normal' for Cordelia when my power source was destroyed. If it had taken just a little longer then she would have never came back."

Dawn asked as innocently as she could. "What's your power source this time?"

Anya smiled evilly at Dawns question. With just a little hint of Anyanka bleeding through. "Wouldn't you like to know? But I'm not just going to blab it to anyone who ask's. Giles was lucky last time. I was over confident and had gotten a little careless, but I'm a lot more careful about it now."

Joyce wanted to take Anya's focus off Dawn. "Were there any other reasons?" She asked hurriedly.

Anya let Joyce pull off the transparent attempt at bailing Dawn out. After all it wasn't like she didn't like the little pest. "Actually there's only one more. If Judgment day is so certain that the powers are warning us. Then I doubt that there would be anything I could do to effect it. Outraged wish or not."

An uncomfortable silence descended over the living room. It was unbroken until the phone rang and dawn shouted. "I'll get it!" As she raced from the overwhelming silence of the living room. Joyce and Anya overheard Dawns side of the conversation.

"Hello" …

"You found a way inside?" …

"You need what! Are you out of your mind!" …

Giles came out from the kitchen when he heard Dawn's outburst. Dawn turned towards him and said. "Giles it's Xander. Wait until you hear this."

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Bwahahahaha yet another cliffy keeping people guessing.

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news first.

I never expected Day six to take anywhere near this long. But as I write the characters and story just want to keep going into new territory. So while it's bad for me it's (hopefully) good for the reader's.

The good news is that I've gotten two chapters done this week. But until I build up my buffer to at least 4 weeks worth of chapters you won't see more than one a week.

Most of the above conversation with Anya is in response to all the questions as to why they simply couldn't wish Skynet away. Keep questioning things. If I can I'll expand on the question and explain just what I'm doing. All of the stuff regarding questions that were posted in reviews.

I will be taking suggestions as to what characters DON'T survive the coming of Judgment Day. There are a couple already slated to die and a couple that I have to have live. But other than that everyone is on the chopping block. I'll take some of the more interesting suggestions. (Very Evil Grin makes Anya run and hide.)

So Please Read and Review.

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	20. Day Six pt11 Supply Missions pt3

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Distribution: _Fan and Twisting the Hellmouth. If you want it your welcome to it. Simply email me so I can come visit._

Scene opens: Angel had been attacked in the previous chapter. Buffy had staged the first of her raids. Xander has found a possible entrance to the initiative base.

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Count Down to Judgment Day:**

**T Minus Six (pt11):**

**(Your doing What!):**

_**(See Authors Note Below.)**_

Giles heard Dawn on the phone and decided to see who she was speaking to.

"You need what! Are you out of your mind!" …

Giles came out from the kitchen when he heard Dawn's outburst. Dawn turned towards him and said. "Giles it's Xander. Wait until you hear this."

Giles thought to himself. _(What now? I truly hope Dawn is over reacting.)_ "Hello Xander?"

"Yeah G-Man it's me."

Giles rubbed the bridge of his nose. "How many times have I asked you not to call me that?"

"Obviously not enough." Was Xander's reply.

"Very well. What are you calling about?" Giles was thinking he had enough headaches that he didn't need Xander adding to them.

Xander knew that Giles would react badly, so he had to set him up. "I think I've found a way into the initiative base."

'Oh then your little supply mission has born fruit?" Giles said as he put his glasses back on.

"Uhm not exactly."

Xander was sounding evasive, which worried Giles. "What do you mean? Not exactly?"

Xander knew he was skating on thin ice. "In the caves I found a metal hatchway. It looks like the sort of thing you'd see on a submarine. I couldn't get it to budge, and it looks pretty darn solid. But I think I might have a way to get through it."

Giles couldn't understand why Dawn had so over reacted to what Xander had said. Nothing he'd said indicated that it needed that kind of response. "Then why did Dawn react the way she did?"

Xander wasn't really looking forward to the way Giles was probably going to react. "All I said was that I could simply blow my way in."

At first Giles couldn't understand why Xander was talking about blowing his way in through a metal door until the other shoe dropped. "Bloody hell!" Giles normally was to much of a gentleman to swear in front of ladies but he was to incensed with Xander's crazy idea to care who was around. "Are you out of your mind!"

Xander held his cell phone away from his ear while Giles raged.

-Meanwhile-

Sunnydale docks.

Buffy had been looking for shark for a while, by taking a running jump from the roof of one warehouse to the next, so she would remain unseen. Fortunately the docks he could operate out of simply weren't that big. So she ran down his Hummer in short order. See saw Shark and his hench demons waiting outside a closed warehouse. She'd kept them under observation while casing the situation out. She'd spotted multiple goons on the top of a couple of the surrounding warehouses. _(Whatever is going down it's big. Sharky looks nervous. I think I'll sneak up and take out some of those possible snipers before I decide to crash the party.)_

Suiting deed to action Buffy jumped down from the roof. And crept to the far side of the ware house she was sure had a thug on top of it. She spotted a way she could scramble up one of the stacks of crates, and jump the rest of the way to the roof of the warehouse without being noticed if she was quick enough. (Here goes nothing.)

-Sharks warehouse-

Cordelia was whining to Wesley and Gunn. "What's keeping Buffy? I want to get out of here and take a shower. This place reeks."

"I'm sure she's merely being as careful as she can. Shark and his thugs aren't someone to be taken lightly. She'll be fine." Wes was hoping to reassure himself along with Cordelia. Buffy was prone to taking rash actions whenever she felt like it.

Gunn didn't know Blondie but he wanted to get their attention back on what they'd found. "Guys we hurt this shark dude. We didn't get much cash. But we got a few guns and grabbed about twenty thousand, while taking out one of the links in his drug chain. What I'd like to know is why Blondie didn't tell us what we were getting into. I thought this was a stolen luxury car ring. Not where he sold his drugs to his dealers."

Wesley winced a little bit from his bruises as he shifted around in his chair. "I have to agree there. A drug den is a much tougher nut to crack than what we were led to expect. Fortunately this was Sunnydale. The authorities here are so backward and it's so overlooked by the rest of the country that Shark never needed to step up his security measures to modern times. Or we would have had a much closer go of it, and wouldn't have gotten anything worth while."

"Before you two work your selves up. Take a closer look around you at the floor. Look at all those oil stains. They look pretty fresh don't they?" Wes and Charles looked around and nodded at Cordelia's words. "I bet this warehouse was exactly what Buffy told us it was last time she was through here. Shark probably shifted things around for some reason. So don't blame Buffy. Heavens knows were not friends. But she's more on the ball then what you two are giving her credit for. Charles I could kind of understand. He's never met her. Only heard our stories. But you Wes, you've seen her in action before." Wesley wilted under Cordelia's look.

Wes sighed. "Your right Cordelia. I should have given Mrs. Summer's more credit. I keep expecting her to be the ditzy California blonde she purports to be. Instead of being one of the greatest Slayer's ever.

-Sunny Dale Sewers-

Angel was a bloody mess. He stood surrounded by a large number of corpses. He was attempting to cover multiple entrances. So far he'd been lucky in that the Sacarrens hadn't delayed and charged him enmasse, but there were enough of them present that he would have little or no chance of surviving.

"Look I don't want to kill anymore of you. All I want to do is release you from your contract. Things have changed now. And I need the weapon your protecting to help save the world."

The most authoritively dressed of the Sacarrens present motioned for the others to wait until he had spoken with Angelus. "You should know Angelus that the contract forbids what you are asking. You could not even use the weapon, so why do you want it?"

Angel was grateful for the chance to figuratively catch his breath. "it's not for me. It's for the Slayer. The powers that be have warned her that the world will be devastated. Not by demonic kind. But by a creation of man's itself. It could be a valuable tool in saving what will be left of mankind in the coming dark times. Also I've wanted to find a way to release you from the contract you were tricked into by Angelus."

"I am a truth speaker so I know that you have told me the truth. I will contact the elders to make a decision. If you make any aggressive moves or attempt to flee you will be destroyed. Most likely the elders will have you tortured and killed .in the most painful manner they can devise."

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Authors Note:

Well it's been some time. But hopefully I will be updating Countdown much more regularly now. I was unemployed for about 5 months and didn't have any internet access for about 4 of those months. For a short period of time, I didn't even have power. I got online last week and I decided to do some writing. So I have done some writing on Scooby and Countdown and should be posting a couple of chapters to advance different stories in short order, now that I'm back online. But With being unemployed etc I simply didn't feel up to doing any writing. So I will only be posting as I complete stuff. I don't have any sort of backlog to fallback on.

Now I'll return you to your semi irregularly scheduled story.


	21. Day Six pt12 Xander's Supply Mission

Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: _Italics_

Thoughts: _(Italics)_

Distribution: _Fan and Twisting the Hellmouth. If you want it your welcome to it. Simply email me so I can come Visit._

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Count Down to Judgment Day:**

**T Minus Six (pt12):**

**(Xander's Supply Mission):**

"**_Happy New Year!"_**

_(Look at Authors Note 2 below. Now I return you to your regularly scheduled story.)_

-Outside the caves-

After Giles had calmed down a bit, Xander put his cell phone back to his ear. "Getting upset isn't going to help the situation. I have a plan. And I'd like a little help from you and Dawn and anyone else you have lying around that might be useful. I can do it myself but the time we save could be vital later on."

Giles was still flummoxed from what Xander had told him. "But if blowing the door open would cause all the potential problems you mentioned then what else could you do? And why do you need me?"

"Because I have an idea that's just as good as blowing the door itself. Anyway getting access to any supplies that got left behind would be very worthwhile.."

"They figuratively salted the earth behind them when they closed the base. Supposedly they filled it with concrete."

Xander nodded his head unconsciously while listening to Giles. "All that's true Giles. But you forget soldier guy, he kept making me itch in the back of my mind.. So I kept an unobtrusive eye on the construction equipment going through town for a few months after the Adam fiasco, pretty easy to do working where I do. While there was a large amount of concrete being poured for different projects around the campus. More than there should have been. It wasn't enough to fill a place as big as the Initiative base was. I bet the only filled in a good chunk of the entry way's we knew about. With the kind of trouble good ol' Sunnyhell attracts, I'd be willing to bet they have a stockpile of supplies for any emergency response teams that they would need to deploy around here. Almost any other place we might stumble across. But we'd never go digging into a base 'filled' with concrete."

"That sound like a reasonable series of justifications to me Xander. But would it be worth the risk? You could bring governmental attention to us when we least need it."

I have a couple ideas to deal with any attention we might get. It's a risk. There's no way it wouldn't be a risk. But as a certain Captain once said. "Risk is our business." We're going to have to take some chances. In my opinion the possible gains out weigh the problems it could cause us. I've bee thinking on contingencies while I worked my way back to above ground so I could call you, and I think I have an answer for almost any complication that would hold up for the short term at the least. So you'll meet me at the job site like I asked and things will go ok."

"Very well. But we are NOT involving Dawn. This would be far to reckless for her to be mixed up in. And I doubt that her mother whose been listening in on my half of the conversation would allow it."

Joyce snorted. "You got that right." As she looked over at dawns rebellious attitude from Giles excluding her.

A while later at the job site-

(AN:1)

Giles had just shut the top of Xander's boot. (In the US it's a trunk.) "I can't believe it was that easy. Surely there are more safeguards in place to prevent this sort of thing."

"Well this being Sunnyhell and my being the foreman for rebuilding the school have a big effect on how easy this was. But if it hadn't been for the scheduling mix up's we couldn't have ever pulled this off, even in the short term. As it is before the week's over the jig will be up. So we better be long gone our we'll be looking at some rather substandard housing with a roommate named bubba who wants to be friend's."

"But still, in broad daylight." Giles just shook his head.

"It's actually easier now than at night. There's a lot more activity going on, than at night and the amount I swiped isn't easily noticeable. All you did was provide the distraction I needed. Dawn would have been a better distraction. But it seems like things went smoothly enough. Now lets go get the others and head over to the cave entrances.

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(AN:1) I tried writing the details of the explosives stealing. But I just couldn't write it in any sort of realistic way that met my criteria for believability and having a few fatal errors that would get someone caught if they tried the same thing. So after multiple attempts I decided to skip that little section entirely. I'm sorry if it effects your enjoyment of the story. But my conscious and artistic sensibilities came in conflict and I simply had to skip this section. I couldn't chance some kid trying what I wrote and either getting hurt or hurting someone else. And since I'm not getting paid (or edited) for this story I decided to give this stretch a pass.

AN:2 I'm going to publish a chapter of Countdown every week. And alternate each week doing a chapter of either Scooby meets the Scoobies or Lost Potter. I may take a break from those stories and finish working on the sequel to Bionic Summers for a week or two's break. While I put the new Bionic story up.

I'm putting next weeks up early so everyone can have a New Years surprise.


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